Year: 2010

So, Now the Republicans are Blaming Pr0n for the Meltdown

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While it is true that senior enforcement personnel at the SEC spent a lot of time downloading pr0n on their PC’s, this story has been around for years, as ProPublica notes, and the reason that it’s hitting the media spin cycle now is because the Republicans, Darrell Issa specifically, are pushing the story because they want to stop reform.

Basically, they want to say that the failures were because of a few bad apples at the SEC, and pr0n is a good way for them to illustrate this, because pr0n attracts the media, and it is a simple narrative, which attracts the incompetent.

So it’s a win-win for the Republicans who want to side-track reform: It’s a pretty bauble to distract the press with, and they can claim that it shows that government shouldn’t regulate.

Elections Have Consequences, Hostages on the Tarmac Edition

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The US Transportation Department has denied a request for a waiver the “3 hours on the tarmac” rule by Jet Blue, Delta, American, Continental, and USAir.

They had claimed that the crowded skys in New York (Philly for USAir) made delays of 3 hours or greater likely, and they wanted relief, but Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (who is, BTW a Republican, credit where credit is due), denied the request, leaving them unsatisfied:*

Five U.S. airlines lost a bid to exempt New York-area flights from a rule requiring carriers to release passengers from planes stuck on tarmacs for three hours.

Concerns that runway construction at New York’s Kennedy airport will lead to excessive cancellations “can be resolved through more careful flight scheduling,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wrote today in denying the request. Passengers “have a right to know that they will not be held hostage.”

LaHood’s three-hour rule, effective April 29, fines carriers up to $27,500 per passenger for failing to give them an option to exit planes sitting on the tarmac. JetBlue Airways Corp. March 4 requested the Kennedy exemption until Dec. 1 when runway work is complete.

The evidence is fairly clear, that this is a way to avoid having to pay to house and feed passengers on flights that should have been canceled, and it is an egregious excess.

Good for Sec. LaHood

*Yes, I know, a cheap rhetorical twist, but it’s all I got.

Greece Grabs IMF/EU Lifeline

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Not surprising considering that the yields on their latest 2-year bond spiked to 11.61%, so they have asked for the activation of the financial rescue package:

Describing his country’s economy as “a sinking ship,” the Greek prime minister formally requested on Friday an international bailout, testing the solidarity of the European Union as never before.

“We drew up a plan, we took difficult and painful measures,” Prime Minister George A. Papandreou said in a nationally televised address. “But the markets did not respond.”

Concerns about the Greek budget deficit — an estimated 13.6 percent of gross domestic product last year — have pushed interest rates on Greek bonds above those of emerging countries like India and the Philippines, leading to talk of a potential default and years of stagnant growth.

(emphasis mine)

Note that as screwed up as Greece is, and it is arguably the closest to 3rd world nation status among the Euro zone members, it ain’t the Philippines.

Part of the reason for the spike is clearly heard panic mentality, but my guess is also that some of the wonderful new instruments that have come into existence over the past 20 years, credit default swaps (CDS) and the like, which make it profitable to bet on a neighbor’s house burning down, and then torching it.

These instruments magnify both risk and volatility, and this is why they need to be severely restricted or banned.

Gaffe: When a Politician Tells the Truth

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Michael Steel’s latest comment, which appears to be driving Republicans crazy, and making Democrats chuckle, yet again:

For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South.

This quote is factually correct. We literally have the memos, reproduced in the writings of folks like former Nixon strategist Kevin Phillips.

But nonetheless, the Republicans are freaking, so, Dave Weigel talks to Republicans, and gets a quote from Bruce Bartlett:

I think it’s too bad that Steele gave Democrats reason to believe that their distorted vision of how Republicans came to dominate the South is correct. It may be his biggest gaffe so far.

(emphasis mine)

Bartlett is upset because this is true.

I Told You So…

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Remember when I said that Blanche Lincoln’s strong proposals on derivatives reform were, just for show?

I said the following:

I’m with David Dayen, this all happened within days of her primary challenger, Bill Halter (Reminder, he’s on My Act Blue Page) releasing ads saying that she was too close to the banking industry.

Everyone on Capitol hill know that her proposals will never go beyond a press release, and that behind the scenes, she will continue to do the big banks’ bidding.

This is just electoral politics, and a full court press from her Congressional Colleagues and the White House.

And sure as the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west, it’s happening.

Before the Republicans even got into the room, Democrats are weakening her proposals, with Gillibrand, Casey, and Stabenow taking point.

It’s what Glen Greenwald calls, “Villain Rotation“.

Basically, when an incumbent needs an electoral boost, they come out with a populist proposal, and then it gets killed by someone else, and when that person needs an electoral boost, they change places.

Charie Crist Gets Lucky

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No, I am not talking about some sort of sordid liaison, I am referring to the fact that his primary opponent in the Florida Senate campaign, Mark Rubio, is is being investigated by the, “U.S. attorney, IRS and FBI,” for misusing Republican Party of Florida credit cards for personal use:

Meanwhile, in a separate inquiry, the IRS is also looking at the tax records of at least three former party credit card holders — former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, ex-state party chairman Jim Greer and ex-party executive director Delmar Johnson — to determine whether they misused their party credit cards for personal expenses, according to a source familiar with the preliminary inquiry.

………

Rubio billed the party for more than $100,000 during the two years he served as House speaker, according to credit card statements obtained by the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald. The charges included repairs to the family minivan, grocery bills, plane tickets for his wife and purchases from retailers ranging from a wine store near his home to Apple’s online store. Rubio also charged the party for dozens of meals during the annual lawmaking session in Tallahassee, even though he received taxpayer subsidies for his meals.

I’m kind of hoping for Rubio to win the Republican primary, and Crist to run as a 3rd party candidate, because I don’t see Democrat Kendrick Meek winning any other way.

He’s a good guy, but there are a lot of people in Florida who just won’t vote for a black man.

New $100 Bill

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Defense Against the Counterfeiters from Langley

So, the 100 dollar bill has been revealed.

Nominally, it is intended to defeat the “Super Bill,” which primarily occupies the world outside of the US, which is printed by ………… Well, we don’t know, but my money is that it’s someone inside the US government, because of the following bits of information:

Simply put, if you want to pay someone off, and you don’t want a budget item that says, “Bribe made to Adnan Khashoggi,” it’s just a lot cheaper to have a budget for, “Miscellaneous printing.”

I could be wearing a tinfoil hat on this one, but I think that someone in the US collection of TLA’s (Three Letter Acronyms) in the intelligence community knows more about the super bills than they are telling.

On Arizona’s Immigration Law

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I tend to be a hard-ass on immigration. I tend to refer to them as “illegal,” not “undocumented,” and I favor strict penalties against those who negligently (the current standard is knowingly) employ illegal aliens/

I also understand the reality of the situation, that about ⅓ of illegals in the US entered illegally and overstayed their visas, which means that they are not the stereotypical Hispanic, and that much of the immigration fraud in the US occurs in things like the H1B and L1A visas, who are overwhelmingly not Hispanic, where a significant proportion of the visas are granted in violation of the regulations.

That being said, Arizona’s new immigration law sucks. (Google news link)

Basically, it’s an excuse for police officers to stop, detain, and arrest people for “driving while Hispanic.”

It’s standard Republican populist bigotry and racism.

Obama’s Speech

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I saw it, actually read it in the closed caption, I was at the gym on a stationary bicycle, and my reaction was that it was a missed opportunity.

He asked the banks to get on board, basically scolding them, but did not name names, or otherwise get medieval on them.

The American public hates the big banks, which, BTW, should be referred to exclusively as Wall Street Banks, even if the effect on poll numbers on financial reform are minor, as I have argued.

The bankers are not stake holders, they are malefactors, and should be treated as such.

Saying, “Can’t we all just get along,” is both bad politics, and bad policy.

Economics Update

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It’s jobless Thursday, and initial unemployment claims fell by 24,000 to 456,000, not as good as forecast, and the 4-week moving average rose slightly, while continuing claims fell by 40,000 to 4.65 million, though, as always, the last number does not count those (like me) collecting extended unemployment benefits.

In inflation land, we had the producer price index rise by 0.7% in March, giving an annual rate of inflation of over 8½%, though the year over year increase is 6%, and for the core rate, which strips out food and energy, the increase was only 0.1% for the month and 0.9% year over year.

Of concern is the fact that food prices rose by 2.4% in March, a 26 year high.

In real estate, the Architecture Billings Index fell, indicating future contraction in the construction of commercial real estate, while mortgage applications rose, largely on lower rates.

In home sales, we saw a 6.8% spike last month. This was almost certainly driven by the home buyer tax credit that is due to expire on April 20, so we’ll see what the April, and May numbers look like.

In energy and currency, oil rose slightly on good earnings reports, and the Euro took a hit on new Greek deficit numbers.

Have I Mentioned that I Love Jon Stewart?

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Well Bernard Goldberg, former CBS news man, and the slightly smarter side of the comedy team Goldberg and Goldberg (Bernie and Jonah, no relation and in particular order), had decided to challenge Jon Stewart once again.

Bad move, dude.

Jon Stewart responds, and this time he has backup of gospel singers:

It is a righteous take-down, but damn, Jews can’t dance to gospel for sh%$.*

*So says this yid.

Never Stop Your Enemy from Stepping On His Own Dick

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When you’re in Leno’s monologue, YOU ARE COMPLETELY SCREWED

As I have mentioned a number of times, Harry Reid is polling horribly in his bid for reelection.

In fact, his poll numbers are so bad that it appeared that his only hope was that there was a possible teabagger 3rd party candidate.

Well, it looks like the the Republican front runner just threw a life line to the Senate Majority Leader, or more accurately, she threw herself an anvil.

You see, she made a statement about how barter should be an important part of healthcare.

When I first heard this, I assumed that this was someone misspeaking and confusing “barter” and “bargain”.

I was wrong. She really meant barter, as in chickens for MRI’s:

The feathers are flying in the political attacks over Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden’s declarations that people could control health care costs through the use of barter.

On Monday, Lowden doubled down on the barter idea. “Let’s change the system and talk about what the possibilities are. I’m telling you that this works,” Lowden said. “You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say I’ll paint your house.”

(emphasis mine)

So, not only is she eschewing healthcare reform, she is apparently opposed to the very concept of money, the center of our financial system.*

So, she’s not just a Republican, she is an Anarcho syndicalist, opposed to the very concept of money, or she’s a complete moron, or maybe both.

In any case, Senator Reid, it’s better to be lucky than good, and you just got lucky.

*OK, money and greed……†
†……OK, money, greed, and fractional-reserve banking……‡
‡…………OK, money, greed, fractional-reserve banking, and a well defined system of contract law ……………… Oh, never mind.

Signs of the Apocalypse

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Starts at 2:05

On Morning Joe, Mark Halperin, a long time hack best known for the phrase, “Matt Drudge rules our world,” feels compelled to call it for what it is when he says, “They are willfully misreading the bill or they are engaged in a cynical attempt to keep the president from achieving something.” (emphasis mine)

Except for the fact that he should have said and not or, he is telling the truth, and when Mark Halperin feels compelled to call bullsh%$, you know that Republican spin has crossed some sort of “Shoe Event Horizon” where the normal punditocracy simply ceases to function.

The first part of the video is Austan Goolsbee ably defending the program (full disclosure, I made a post that he objected to in the comments, see here, and I posted his response here),* but Joe turns to Halperin for a “fair and balanced appraisal, and Halperin calls them full of it too.

H/t Steve Benen.
*I don’t have a problem with his objecting, my family calls me full of it all the time, it sticks in my head because I was stunned that he read my little old blog in his capacity as an economic advisor to the Obama campaign.

Jim Cramer Must Hate Jon Stewart

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These F@#king Guys!

Admittedly, the full 7:47 isn’t about Jim Cramer, just the first 2:28, but anything that finishes with:

You get the sense that if Jim Cramer was around in 1912 he would have said ‘you’re not going to hear this from anyone else, but my sources tell me the Titanic has the best buffet on the high seas. And by the way if you want to get there faster, try the Hindenburg.

Stewart then goes on to the talking heads on the financial networks are describing the case in terms indicative of a, “Traumatic brain injury,” and then he proceeds to describe everything in terms that we can all understand.

And then he gets to Goldman Sachs, and the fact that the fraud division will be getting billions in bonuses, because, I guess, their job is to create fraud, not stop it.

At the end, as a bonus, he describes the Republican mindset on governance.

Economics Update

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Not a bunch of news, but is news is good news, with the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators rising sharply.

Additionally, defaults and foreclosures fell in California, though one wonders whether this is a real improvement, or if it’s just that we’ve basically run out of non-delinquent/foreclosed houses.

L’affaire Goldman seems to the primary mover in oil, with strong Goldman earnings driving oil prices higher, while the juxtaposition of the Goldman numbers and the uncertainty about Greece left the dollar mixed.

[on edit]
The Canadian Ddollar has broken the 1:1 ratio with the US dollar, hitting $1.0012 U.S today.

George Washington’s Body to be Exhumed by Irate Librarians

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Yes, it’s in my anxiety closet too.

Archivists have discovered that George Washington borrowed books from the New York Library when he was President, and now owes the equivalent of $300,000.00 in overdue fines:

Founder of a nation, trouncer of the English, God-fearing family man: all in all, George Washington has enjoyed a pretty decent reputation. Until now, that is.

The hero who crossed the Delaware river may not have been quite so squeaky clean when it came to borrowing library books.

The New York Society Library, the city’s only lender of books at the time of Washington’s presidency, has revealed that the first American president took out two volumes and pointedly failed to return them.

At today’s prices, adjusted for inflation, he would face a late fine of $300,000.

So, Mrs. McGreevey is coming after him.

Apologies to Berkeley Breathed for rearranging the frames friom his horizontal format to a vertical one.

I Think That This Is Misleading

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So, Gallup has a poll, which reveals a much higher level of support for regulating “Wall Street” than it does for regulating “Big Banks”.

The net goes from +3% to +14% thus “showing” that regulating Wall Street is much more popular.

The thing is, the delta for “In Favor” is only +4%, and the delta for “No Opinion” is only +3%, and, “Qne can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.”

So, we can say that while the drop in opposition -7% is significant, but the other ones are within the margin of error, though the sample size is ½ that of the full survey, and I am not sure that it effects the MOE.

If you want to argue that this points to a good frame to use on the argument for reform, feel free.

There is a measurable improvement in the polling by using “Wall Street”, but the change in terminology is not a silver bullet to Mitch McConnell’s filibuster werewolf.