Year: 2010

Why the Chinese Will Continue to Eat Our Lunch

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Because they understand what is going on, and they are willing to do tough things to make sure that things don’t blow up in their faces:

China’s banking regulator told lenders last month to conduct a new round of stress tests to gauge the impact of residential property prices falling as much as 60 percent in the hardest-hit markets, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Banks were instructed to include worst-case scenarios of prices dropping 50 percent to 60 percent in cities where they have risen excessively, the person said, declining to be identified because the regulator’s requirement hasn’t been publicly announced. Previous stress tests carried out in the past year assumed home-price declines of as much as 30 percent.

(emphasis mine)

The Chinese understand that the purpose of stress tests is to identify problem institutions, not to reassure markets, so they will thoroughly investigate their banks, and then probably jail senior management at some of the worst run institutions.

It might be painful, but it gets ahead of the events, as opposed to our method, extend and pretend, which means that when future problems occur, the Chinese have better options available to them.

I guess that the leadership of the PRC aren’t worried about being called “Socialists,” because they call themselves socialists.

Economics Update

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We have a fair amount of news, most of it bad, with consumer spending and personal income flat, pending home sales falling sharply in June, and the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing survey falling more than expected, though the latter still indicates (rather anemic) growth.

Additionally, we have the Wells Fargo/Gallup survey of small business sentiment hitting a new low, while personal bankruptcy filings rose 9% in July.

As to the good news, we have…

We have…

We have…

We have…

Ummmm…A survey of economic mood in Europe hitting two-year high?

Primaries Tonite

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Michigan, Missouri, and Kansas, with the updated results here.

The only remotely close race was the MI governor’s race. The rest of the races, congressional and gubernatorial, were not even remotely close on the Dem side.

As to the ‘Phants, I really don’t care, but you can click on their tool too.

Obama Administration Goes Full Eric Blair*

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Or maybe Franz Kafka.

You see, last month, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights were retained by Nasser al-Awlaki, “the father of Obama assassination target (and U.S. citizen) Anwar al-Awlaki,” to get a court injunction to keep him from being killed by the U.S. government..

The government’s response was declare Anwar al-Awlaki a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” which meant that lawyers could not represent him without a special license from the government.

George W. Bush never asserted a right to assassinate American citizens, and they never used Treasury Department anti money laundering legislation to prevent lawyers from representing someone pro bono in a case to prevent their assassination:

Left with no choice, the ACLU and CCR this morning filed a lawsuit on their own behalf against Timothy Geithner and the Treasury Department. The suit argues that Treasury has no statutory authority under the law it invokes — The International Emergency Economic Powers Act — to bar American lawyers from representing American citizens on an uncompensated basis. It further argues what ought to be a completely uncontroversial point: that even if Congress had vested Treasury with this authority, it is blatantly unconstitutional to deny American citizens the right to have a lawyer, and to deny American lawyers the right to represent clients, without first obtaining a permission slip from Executive Branch officials (the Complaint is here). As the ACLU/CCR Brief puts it: “The notion that the government can compel a citizen to seek its permission before challenging the constitutionality of its actions in court is wholly foreign to our constitutional system” and “[a]s non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting civil liberties and human rights, Plaintiffs have a First Amendment right to represent clients in litigation consistent with their organizational missions.” The Brief also argues that it is a violation of Separation of Powers to allow the Executive Branch to determine in its sole discretion who can and cannot appear in and have access to a federal court.

Obama’s positions on national defense and surveillance indisputably worse than those of George W. Bush’s.

Bootnote:
After stonewalling for weeks, the Treasury Department granted a license once the ACLU and CCR filed a separate lawsuit against the denial of such a license, probably because they want to assert the right again, even if it is just for a few weeks to f%$# with the ability of some guy to get proper legal counsel.

I am so writing in “Howard Dean,” in the 2012 general.

*George Orwell’s real name.

Normally I Don’t Comment on Local Rulings of Local Landmarks Preservation Commission

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Only this time, it was the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission ruling that the location for the Islamic center and mosque in lower Manhattan is not historically significant, allowing for construction to proceed.

This puts them on a higher moral plane than Abraham Foxman’s ADL, but considering his recent history, the geriatric leader of the ADL does not set a particularly high bar.

The FBI Gets Stupid

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Click for full size


J. Edgar Hoover can bite my shiny metal ass!

This bit of FBI stupidity is a pretty good indication of how the current IP regime, and what people think the current IP regime is is a clusterf%$#:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken on everyone from Al Capone to John Dillinger to the Unabomber. Its latest adversary: Wikipedia.

The bureau wrote a letter in July to the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of Wikipedia, demanding that it take down an image of the F.B.I. seal accompanying an article on the bureau, and threatened litigation: “Failure to comply may result in further legal action. We appreciate your timely attention to this matter.”

The problem, those at Wikipedia say, is that the law cited in the F.B.I.’s letter is largely about keeping people from flashing fake badges or profiting from the use of the seal, and not about posting images on noncommercial Web sites. Many sites, including the online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, display the seal.

Other organizations might simply back down. But Wikipedia sent back a politely feisty response, stating that the bureau’s lawyers had misquoted the law. “While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version” that the F.B.I. had provided.

I can understand if it’s some smart ass blogger telling J. Edgar Hoover, “Bite their shiny metal ass,”* but this is a post of the seal on a damn encyclopedia.

Morons.

*Somehow, I don’t think that the G-men are coming after me, and neither does the New York Times, who also reproduced the seal.

Wanker of the Day

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Little Timmy Geithner just penned an OP/Ed today, “Welcome to the Recovery,” which is remarkably clueless.

While he admits that there is still a tough row to how, his he characterization of the recovery is positively Hooveresque.

I am surprised that he did not announce that “Prosperity is just around the corner.”

He declares, “We are on a path back to growth,” and that “The economy on the road to recovery”.

I understand the desire to paint this rosily, but it is a political loser: Americans do not respond well to claims of a robust recovery when ⅙ of the workforce (U6) is unemployed.

I think that the problem here is that Geithner does not see this unemployment level as a problem.

Why else would he suggest that at a time when there are 5 job applicants for every job opening, a record, that the problem is just that American workers need training:

The share of workers who have been unemployed for six months or more is at its highest level since 1948, when the data was first recorded, and we must do more to ensure that they have the skills they need to re-enter the 21st-century economy.

This is offensive and wrong on so many levels.

As Atrios notes:

The sentence that should have been written is:

The share of workers who have been unemployed for six months or more is at its highest level since 1948, when the data was first recorded, and we must do more to ensure that they have jobs.

But obviously that’s not what they’re thinking. Unemployment is a skills mismatch problem, unemployed losers don’t “have the skills they need to re-enter the 21st-century economy.”

We’re screwed.

Anyone who thinks that the problem is a temporary dislocation of workers, as opposed to a period of catastrophic job loss should be considered to lack the skills necessary to be employed in the 21st century economy.

Fire Tim Geithner now.

Porter Goss???

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As a part of Congressional ethics reform, the Office of Congressional Ethics was established in 2008.

It’s co-chair is Porter Goss, whose aides both in Congress and while he was at the CIA, were convicted of corruption, which (unsurprisingly, it involved Republicans) and whose number 2 at the CIA was sleeping with a woman who was sleeping with a Russian spy at the time of he hired him. (My archive of my posts on him are here)

He was also the guy when asked about an investigation of the invasion or Iraq, he quipped that he would wait for a blue dress.

This is like putting Keith Richards in charge of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

This may explain why the only two Congressmen brought up on charges so far are Black Democrats, and, just heard on Olbermann, that there have been 8 investigations, and all 8 of them were of Black Democrats.

Jeebus! I understand that this needs to be a bipartisan commission, but you should not be putting rat f%$#ers on the commission so that they can attempt to gain partisan advantage.

They Should Save Their Energies for the Pedophile Priests

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The Chilean President has denied a request by the Catholic Church to pardon members of the Pinochet junta currently jailed for murder, rape, kidnapping, etc.:

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Sunday denied a pardon to people jailed for dictatorship-era crimes, a move likely to ease tensions with the opposition and rights groups over a controversial call for clemency.

Chile’s Catholic Church had asked Pinera to free or lower jail sentences of military officers convicted for human rights violations as well as other criminals in a call for clemency to mark the country’s upcoming bicentennial celebrations.

The pardon request infuriated human right groups and the center-left opposition, rekindling memories of General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 rule that still divides many Chileans.

I’m thinking that the Church of Rome issues of forgiveness that are a bit “closer to home”.

Perhaps they should address these matters before engaging in a full throated defense of the perpetrators of horrors of the Chilean dictatorship.

It’s Not, “Not So Bad,” It Sucks

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It appears that lawmakers on both the state and federal level are starting to look at the salaries of senior executives for tax-exempt organizations.

What I love is the quote from M. Cass Wheeler departing CEO of the American Heart Association:

“If you peeled all that [outrageous supplemental pension and other provisions] back, you’d get to a base salary less than $600,000,” he said.

OK, so your base is almost 1½ times that of the President of the United States of America, and you are doing charity work, and we are supposed to be OK with that.

No, we aren’t.

Neither should we be OK with hedge fund managers making over a billion dollars a year, but for non-profits, we are subsidizing the donations that pay their salary.

Enough.

I would note that the most egregious examples are in “not for profit” hospitals, which would imply to me that these institutions are “not for profit” as a fig leaf.

You Win a Brand New Car! Or a Spiff Horse Drawn Carriage!

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They are having a blood drive in Ohio, where donating blood enters you into a competition for a brand new car, or, if you so choose, you can win a brand new custom made horse-drawn buggy:

During the traditionally slow summer months for blood donation, the Northern Ohio Blood Services Region of the American Red Cross offers an incentive: Donate a pint, get a chance to win a car.

It’s a tried and true promotion. From charity golfers to high school boosters to game show contestants, who wouldn’t want to drive home in a brand … new … car!

How about a culture that shuns such modern contrivances. Say, the Amish.

Turns out Amish people are faithful blood donors in this district, which encompasses Geauga, Holmes and Tuscarawas counties – all centers of Amish population.

The Red Cross doesn’t want to forget them, said spokeswoman Christy Chapman. So in addition to the car, donors can win a brand…new…buggy!

Seriously.

Obviously, this is a sensible and humane way to encourage blood donations by accommodating the needs of a supportive community, but I also find it a hoot.

What can I say, I’m not a good person.

A Bit of Meta

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I’ll be trimming my blogroll over the next week or so.

All of the entries, but there is the time to read them, so I need to do a bit of a cost/benefit analysis.

Additionally, for a number of the more heavily trafficked blogs, I tend to find stuff that most interests me through links from other sites.

Another Ethics Investigation

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This time, it’s Maxine Waters, who is alleged to have intervened on behalf of a bank that her husband had a significant interest in.

So, in the past 4 weeks, the Ethics Committee has made a substantive move against 2 Dems, though Rengel’s ethics problems have been ongoing for months.

I’m curious as to why this is all cropping up now, and I expect a 3rd shoe to drop.

I would note that in comparison to what the Republicans did, Rengel is alleged to have done favors to people who contributed to a building named after him, evaded taxes, and misused rent controlled apartments, while Waters is alleged to have intervened on behalf of a bank where her husband served as a board member (though it was also the only minority owned bank in Massachusetts) is pretty mild.

By comparison, with the Republicans, (rolling the Abramoff* Wiki) you had people paid to lobby for slave labor in the Marianas, cheating Indian tribes, taking money from the gambling business while also taking money from anti-gambling activists, and lobbying for the genocidal monsters in Sudan.

Come to think of it, Democratic corruption appears to be rather quite lame in comparison.

It is still reprehensible, but rather a lot like comparing a small snatch and grab with the Great Train Robbery.

Both crooks, but one of them has a bit of audacity.

*Full disclosure: I went to school with, and served in the student senate with, one of his associates who has faced legal repercussions, and my babysitter went to school with his daughter.

Call Me a Cynic………

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So Barack Obama has repeated his promise to be out of Iraq by August 31.

Note that this involves a lot of weasel words, the core phrase being, “America’s combat mission in Iraq would end.”

That doesn’t mean that there won’t be soldiers there, and that they won’t be shot at, but rather that they are providing “Training and Logistical Support.”

Shades of American advisers in Vietnam.

I don’t think that Obama wants to stay, but he does not have the strength to tell the Pentagon to get the F%$# out and shut the F%$# up, and because the generals still want a little war, because it’s good for careers, and because a real peace dividend would interfere with their consulting gigs in retirement.

I am not suggesting that the Pentagon is unpatriotic, any more than I would suggest that the telemarketing industry is, but they view their benefit to be an independent good for the nation, which does not serve the nation.

This is why robust civilian control of the military is essential for a civil society.

I may be wrong in my prediction, I am wrong more often than not, but I fear that I am right.

Colorado Senate Race-Primary Update

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It looks like Andrew Romanoff, who recently sold his house to lend money to his campaign, appears to have moving ahead of incumbent appointee corporate raider/DINO Michael Bennet in the polls, with the most recent poll showing a lead of 48%-45%, though the Bennet campaign is claiming that they still hold a 4 point lead in internal polls, 41%-37%.

Note that the rule of thumb is that undecideds break at least 2:1 for the challenger, so either number looks like a very likely loss for Bennet, which to my mind would be a good thing.

Real Democrats win, and then they push good policies in office.

Rather unsurprisingly, the Obama administration come out rather strongly in favor of Bennet, as it has routinely in the case of Corporatocrats this cycle.

The primary is next Tuesday, and here’s hoping that Romanoff wins, particularly since the Republicans seem to be busy self-destructing in their primary.