And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.
So it appears that the rapid pace of closures may be moderating somewhat.
And here are the credit union closings:
Note that this credit union has nothing to do with Nuns, it was served members of the Convent Avenue Baptist Church.
It’s a tiny institution, with fewer than 300 members.
So, here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):
The Democrats in the New Jersey statehouse have passed a bill to raise income taxes on people earning more than $1 million a year, and predictably, the wingnut governor is promising a veto:
Lawmakers in New Jersey’s Democrat- controlled Assembly voted to raise income taxes on residents earning at least $1 million a year, as Republican Governor Chris Christie said he’d veto the bill.
The chamber passed the measure 46-32 in a vote that broke down along party lines. Of 33 Republicans, 32 voted no. The Senate approved the bill 23-17 along party lines, setting up a showdown with Christie, 47, as the deadline approaches to have a balanced budget in place when the fiscal year ends on June 30.
“We’ve got a lot of people who can’t afford to pay their taxes” and need the rebates that the measure may restore, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver said before the vote. “Six- hundred thousand older adults would be better off.”
So now you have the Democrats lining up against Goldman Sachs traders, who get paid obscene amounts to screw their clients and other counter-parties with the guarantee of taxpayer money should they fail.
The optics are perfect, and the policy of making the wealthy pay for the damage that they cause, which has the side effect of providing a less recessionary impact on the state economy, is just plain good policy.
This is a win-win, and Dems should jam up Republicans like this more often.
God bless the Tories.
It appears that they will be doing a real investigation of the UK government’s involvement with US Sponsored Torture:
A judge will investigate claims that British intelligence agencies were complicit in the torture of terror suspects, William Hague, the foreign secretary, said tonight.
The move was welcomed by civil liberties campaigners and may put pressure on the Labour leadership candidate and former foreign secretary David Miliband, who was accused by Hague, while in opposition, of having something to hide.
This is a far better policy than aiding and abetting the Bush/Cheney cover-up, “looking forward, and not back,” which is espoused by Barack Obama and His Evil Minions™.
Here’s hoping that they uncover some of the misdeeds of Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfeld in the process.
And yes, this is an actual working Pacman game, in honor of its 30th anniversary.
If you know nothing of Maryland Politics, you don’t know who Joe Steffen is.
He’s a Republican political operative, formerly Bob Ehrlich’s aide, who is currently on the outs with the party, who is also known by his nickname, the “Prince of Darkness.”
I think of him as Lee Atwater writ on a state wide basis.
That being said, he tends to be rather more chatty about the comings and goings of Republican party politics in the state (In fact, it was imprudent postings on a BBS that were traced back to him which got him fired by “Bad Hair Bob” some years back), and so, despite my profound disagreements with him on issues of policy, I read his blog and I hear a lot of good inside baseball.
Case in point, he outs Republican party stalwart David Nawrocki for sending campaign emails from his work account.
It seems like a minor thing, until you realize that Nawrocki works for the Social Security Administration, which makes his email a criminal violation of the Hatch act.
Oopsie.
This is why I blogroll people and subscribe to their RSS feeds. It’s not because I agree with them, but because they can teach me things.
In an otherwise ordinary article about how former Googlers in the Obama White House continue to talk with current Googlers, we have the following exchange:
In January, for instance, Google’s vice president and “chief Internet evangelist” Vint Cerf anxiously wrote to McLaughlin about the worsening chances for net neutrality — the notion that Internet Service Providers should be barred from favoring their own content or from offering “fast-lane” services to premium-paying customers. “Has there been so much flack from the Hill that you guys feel a need to back away” from a commitment?, asked Cerf, attaching a CNET article by a well-credentialed business consultant who was advancing that thesis.
“Don’t be silly,” McLaughlin responds. “No one’s backed away from anything. . . . Isn’t . . . the author of the article, an anti [net neutrality] zealot?”
“Yes, he is,” Cerf wrote. “Just wanted to confirm he’s full of biased baloney.”
“Absolutely,” McLaughlin replied.
If you go through the article, you will never see that name of the journalist in question, Declan McCullagh, who was best described as a “Draw by crayon libertarian,” by the inestimable Andrew Orlowski of The Register.
I deduce it from the Clues, “CNET,” “anti [net neutrality] zealot,” and “Biased Baloney,” if you are familiar with McCullagh’s oeuvre.
What is almost certain is that if the principals in this story were talking about a statement by a lawyer given to over-the-top statements, (Geoff Feiger, for example) you would have seen the name in the story.
It’s not in this story, because it is seen as inappropriate for a journalist to call out another journalist by name, even in the context of a quote someone else.
This attitude is corrosive to journalism.
The Senate passes the Financial Reform Bill.
The banks must be relieved. If the bill had been delayed any further, it would have gotten tougher.
It was a Pizarro world bill in a good way.
Unfortunately, I don’t see it getting any tougher in conference.
The Stamford Advocate quotes him as saying, “I wore the uniform in Vietnam,” which sounds particularly damning, though there is not video or audio tape at this time.
Seriously, the primary is in a few weeks, Connecticut Dems, time to switch horses.
It’s more than just a misstatement or two, because saying things like this:
“I wore the uniform in Vietnam and many came back to all kinds of disrespect. Whatever we think of war, we owe the men and women of the armed forces our unconditional support.”
Appears to be at the core of his public personae. It’s his version of, “A noun, a verb, and 911.” Every 3rd word out of his mouth is something like this, or like the largely apocryphal spitting stories, and as such this makes him seriously damaged goods.
If he does not lose the primary, he just got the state party endorsement, he will very likely lose the general.
H/t The Plum Line.
Will Bunch notices that Pennsylvania State Attorney General, and Republican nominee for governor, Tom Corbett, has issued subpoenas to determine who is making nasty tweets and blog posts about him:
Corbett’s actions here look like one of the most stunning abuses of power I’ve seen in a while — not just in Pennsylvania but anywhere.
A blog focused on exposing the alleged “hypocrisy” of Attorney General Tom Corbett and the Twitter account associated with that blog could soon be enjoying a bounce in reader interest, thanks to a subpoena ordered by Corbett’s office earlier this month.
Corbett, who won a primary against Rep. Sam Rohrer Tuesday and will be the Republican nominee for governor in November, subpoenaed Twitter representatives to appear as grand jury witnesses to “testify and give evidence regarding alleged violations of the laws of Pennsylvania.”
The case could gain viral attention, since the subpoena calls into question the right to free speech, specifically from anonymous posters on the World Wide Web.
Maybe I’m missing some nuance here but at first blush it looks like the anonymous owners of these two Twitter accounts and blogs are doing nothing more than exercising their 1st Amendment rights of free speech to criticize Corbett’s public actions. If Corbett believes that he has been libelled by any of the blog or Twitter posts, he is within his rights to personally sue them (a difficult case for him to win, as a public figure). But that is a far different thing from using the power of the state and the grand jury.
Bunch further updates with a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story, where a they imply that the blogger/bloggers are a defendant in a case, but in a quick reading of the blog, there is no mention of the case, just a litany of accounts of unethical behavior by Mr. Corbett.
This is clearly an attempt at retaliation against critics.
This is not an expanding home market
H/t Calculated Risk
Well, so much for green shoots, it’s jobless Thursday, and new claims rose by 25K this week to 471,000, with the 4 week moving average rising by 3K to 453,500, though the continuing claims number fell by 40K to 4,630,000.
It should be noted that the continuing claims number does not count those on emergency UI, like yours truly.
Additionally, it should be noted that the Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators posted its 1st drop since March 2009. It should be noted that this is a volatile metric, and a folks who know economics generally want at least 3 months up or down before they declare a trend.
Additionally, real estate is looking dicey.
We have, “One in 7 US homeowners late paying or in foreclosure,” actually 14.01%, in the 1st quarter of the year, with 10% of home owners late 90+ days, and the AIA’s Architecture Billings Index shows continued contraction in April, though this indicator for future commercial construction is did improve in comparison to March.
Additionally, mortgage purchase applications fell to a 13 year low, even as low rates kick-started the demand for refinancing.
Note that this is despite near record low mortgage rates.
We are also seeing continuing erosion in the prices of commercial property.
On the plus side, the Philadelphia Bank of the Federal Reserve’s Manufacturing Activity Index rose in May, and Japan’s economy grew faster than expected.
On the inflation side, the CPI fell by 0.1% in April, and the core rate, which excludes food and energy, has risen .9% over the past 12 months, which is actually worrying, as it indicates a risk of a deflationary spiral/lost decade.
Cantwell of Washington and Feingold of Wisconsin continued to vote against cloture, but Republicans Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, and as well as Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who voted against cloture yesterday, voted for cloture, and with Harry Reid switching his vote, it means that the debate has been ended on the bill, and it can proceed to a vote.
It’s better than the status quo, but still crappy, which is what Barack Obama would call “post partisan,” I guess.
The New York Times has an article about high frequency traders, and how they handled the Flash Crash.
It appears that they might have made it worse, because a lot of them just sold everything and shut down their computers when the market drop started.
That’s not a big deal, that’s what happens when you are in the middle of a panic, even one that only lasts about 15 minutes.
What shocks me is this:
These are short-term bets. Very short. The founder of Tradebot, in Kansas City, Mo., told students in 2008 that his firm typically held stocks for 11 seconds. Tradebot, one of the biggest high-frequency traders around, had not had a losing day in four years, he said.
(emphasis mine)
I don’t know what is more disturbing, the fact that these guys are buying and selling stocks 5½ times a minute, or the fact that they always make money.
Either they are front-running, they have access to inside information, or they are a Ponzi scheme, just like Bernie Madoff, and my guess is that it’s the former. High frequency trading makes its money by seeing large trades, and then using shortcuts to buy before the buy, or sell before the sale.
I thought that this was illegal, and if it is not, then it should be.
Some speculation is unavoidable in any system where you have open investment, but there have to be limits.
H/t The Big Picture, who believes that the claim is “bullsh%$”.
No, not Blumenthal, he fessed up in the back-handed way that pols do.
I mean Sue Lowden, who is a Republican running for US Senate against Harry Reid in Nevada.
First, she suggests that people should barter chickens for medical care, and does not have the good sense to say she meant, “Bargain,” and now she is denying that she ever said this.
The problem is that she has been caught on video repeatedly making just such a statement, so let’s roll tape, specifically the inestimable Rachel Maddow.
The first rule is that when you are in a hole, stop digging.
The former anchor woman turned politico brings to mind the immortal Don Henley lyric, “We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blond who Comes on at five, She can tell you ’bout the plane crash with a gleam In her eye.”
In any case, she may be Harry Reid’s electoral salvation.
*Virtual Kewpie doll for whoever picks the reference for the caption.
I really don’t know the back story, but it looks like a stunt sequence out of one of Harold Lloyd‘s old silent films.
Julian Assange had his passport confiscated briefly when he visited Australia, and Australian authorities told him that it would be canceled shortly because it was “worn”:
The Australian founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks had his passport confiscated by police when he arrived in Melbourne last week.
Julian Assange, who does not have an official home base and travels every six weeks, told the Australian current affairs program Dateline that immigration officials had said his passport was going to be cancelled because it was looking worn.
However he then received a letter from the Australian Communication Minister Steven Conroy’s office stating that the recent disclosure on Wikileaks of a blacklist of websites the Australian government is preparing to ban had been referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
So, apparently in Australia, letting people know that the authorities are censoring is grounds for official harassment.
Who do they Australians think that they are? The Obama White House?
The McMahon Campaign’s Statement, since scrubbed, that they were the source of the story
And neither did I when I commented the Times story on Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s statement that he had served in Vietnam, when he actually went through multiple deferments and a stint in the reserves to stay out of the war.
It appears that the paper, and me indirectly, swallowed a piece of opposition research from a political opponent without further checking the story.
Well, the New York Times posted a short clip of his speech where he clearly said that he served in Vietnam.
What they didn’t post was the whole speech, where he leads off with a statement that makes it clear that he is claiming that he simply served during that era, not making a claim of serving in the ‘Nam.
Hell, even Fox News’ Neil Cavuto says that the New York Times did a hack job:
Blumenthal didn’t. As far as I can tell, he quite often made a point of saying he didn’t do the heavy lifting in service, just that he appreciated his Marine Reserves service and really appreciated those who did far more in service. He almost always explained the difference, and almost always cited his gratitude.
What’s more, see the pic, with Republican Senate Linda McMahon’s campaign claiming that the Times swallowed their research lock, stock, and barrel, which falls under the, “What the f%$# were they thinking when they admitted that?” category.
Also, people are not talking with the Connecticut press, and it appears that Blumenthal was generally (an important modifier) clear about his status.
I still think that Blumenthal is dead meat because of this, and that the Dems should nominate someone else (who?) on primary day, though, hopefully, so is Linda McMahon, because they fingered themselves over this, and this is an opening for her Republican primary opponent, Rob Simmons, particularly since there are also credible allegations that she warned a drug (steroid) dealing doctor about a federal investigation.
This will be a crazy race.
The vote was 57-42 against cloture, with Democrats Maria Cantwell of Washington and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin voting against cloture,* and Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine, voted for cloture, with Specter not yet back in the Senate.
Cantwell and Feingold are right here: They have been refused a vote on a number of important amendments and other issues, most notably:
It’s nice that some progressives have shown that they are willing to show teeth.
With Republicans coming to realize just how loathed Wall Street is, and realizing that Blanche Lincoln’s reelection driven decision to get rough on the banks has triggered a dynamic which makes the bill more extreme as time goes on, as opposed to the usual process of bills getting emasculated in the Senate.
Every day that goes by, it gets for any Republican and corporatist Democrat who is standing for reelection this year finds it harder and harder do do Wall Street’s bidding.
I think that after a few more days of delay, they’ll end up finding a way to break up the big banks.
*Harry Reid voted against cloture too, but that is so he can offer a motion to reconsider, allowing for revote.
If Blanche Lincoln had won the primary outright last night, then her proposal to require that banks separate themselves from their swap desks would be dead, and the bullet would have been Chris Dodd’s proposal, which was to defer implementation for a year for a ‘study’, and then let Timothy “Eddie Haskell as Wall Street’s Bitch” Giethner decide whether it was necessary.
We all know what Geithner would do.
But Lincoln is going to a runoff, and her opponent, Bill Halter, is already saying that this is exactly what she planned, that she would make the proposal, but would let it die once it was politically convenient.
So, Chris Dodd has decided not to introduce the “kill the regulation” amendment.
My guess is that he got a frantic call from Lincoln this morning, begging him to wait until after the June 8 runoff, and so the dynamics of the Congressional incumbency protection racket dictates that he pull the amendment off the table ……… At least until June 9.
Laura Silsby, the leader of the “missionary” expedition to rescue Haitian “orphans”, wasconvicted on charges related to human trafficking and sentenced to time served, so she has been released, and I assume that she is heading back to Idaho:
All 10 of the Americans were initially detained by the Haitian authorities, but only Silsby was charged.
Prosecutors first accused her of abducting the children, but the charge was downgraded to one of “irregular travel” – a crime which covers people smuggling.
Prosecutor Jean-Serge Joseph said she had been sentenced to three months and eight days in jail – the exact time she had spent in custody waiting for her trial.
IMHO, she used the tragedy, as well as the fervor of her fellow church members, who believed that they were rescuing from Catholicism and damnation by raising them as Evangelicals, to get the ball rolling, and I think that at least part of her motivation was money.
Considering her own problems with her failing online shopping business and her association with a man under investigation for sex trafficking, there is a strong stench of corruption and the profit motive.
Older posts are here.
Just when you think that it cannot get any crazier, salvage crews have found bits of the propeller from the torpedo that sank the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, and it has been identified as either Russian or Chinese in origin.
So it’s pretty much a dead nuts cinch that it was a hostile act by the DPRK.
Expect things to get messy on the Korean peninsula for the next few weeks.
H/t Information Dissemination.
My earlier post on the matter.