Month: January 2012
I Will Never Think About Winnie the Pooh Again
So, He’s Either a Bigot or a Political Opportunist
It turns out that signed off regarding the publication of the racist screeds in his newsletter:
Ron Paul, well known as a physician, congressman and libertarian , has also been a businessman who pursued a marketing strategy that included publishing provocative, racially charged newsletters to make money and spread his ideas, according to three people with direct knowledge of Paul’s businesses.
The Republican presidential candidate has denied writing inflammatory passages in the pamphlets from the 1990s and said recently that he did not read them at the time or for years afterward. Numerous colleagues said he does not hold racist views.
But people close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members virtually every day.
“It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product. . . . He would proof it,’’ said Renae Hathway, a former secretary in Paul’s company and a supporter of the Texas congressman.
The newsletters point to a rarely seen and somewhat opaque side of Paul, who has surprised the political community by becoming an important factor in the Republican race. The candidate, who has presented himself as a kindly doctor and political truth-teller, declined in a recent debate to release his tax returns, joking that he would be “embarrassed” about his income compared with that of his richer GOP rivals.
Well, if he was just cashing in on bigoted rubes, this actually is consistent with the basic principle(s) of Libertarians, “F%$# you, I’ve got mine.”
Your Economic Data Points of the Week
The GDP numbers came out, and the word is “meh”, with the economy growing at a 2.8% annual rate in the 4th quarter, under performing the forecast of 3%, and giving a 1.7% increase for the year.
We need to top 3% for a while to really improve our situation.
Yesterday,initial unemployment claims rose, to 377,000, as did continuing claims, though the 4-week moving average, and extended claims fell.
That being said, Consumer sentiment rose in January, which is good news.
What Atrios Said
The basic thinking seems to have been that it was wonderful for university to be free back when most people who attended were quite wealthy, but once the masses started getting ideas about going it was time to force them to pay. And there again is your generational divide.
—Atrios, on the institution of penury inducing tuitions at British colleges
It’s actually a bit more contemptible than that.
The skyrocketing college costs began with two things:
- Collusion by the Ivies and similar elite institutions on tuition and financial aid.
- It started in the 1960s, when the alternative to going to college was getting drafted, and playing hide and seek with a really angry guy with an AK-47 in rice paddies.
Twitter Goes Evil
So now Twitter has decided to do the dirty-work of every despotic regime on the face of the planet earth:
Twitter, a tool of choice for dissidents and activists around the world, found itself the target of global outrage Friday after unveiling plans to allow country-specific censorship of tweets that might break local laws.
It was a stunning role reversal for a youthful company that prides itself in promoting unfettered expression, 140 characters at a time. Twitter insisted its commitment to free speech remains firm, and sought to explain the nuances of its policy, while critics — in a barrage of tweets — proposed a Twitter boycott and demanded that the censorship initiative be scrapped.
“This is very bad news,” tweeted Egyptian activist Mahmoud Salem. Later, he wrote, “Is it safe to say that #Twitter is selling us out?”
Yes.
This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.
They are claiming that this has nothing to do with China, but is has everything to do with China.
Duke, Meet Newt
In the middle of the Republican establishment’s heads exploding over the possibility of a Newt candidacy, Gingrich has been endorsed by former Congressman, and convicted felon, Randall “Duke” Cunningham:
Jailed ex-Congressman Duke Cunningham wants Newt Gingrich to know he’s got the Republican presidential candidate’s back.
Cunningham apparently has been watching the Republican presidential primary debates while spending 100 months in a Tucson, Ariz. federal prison. Cunningham, a Republican who represented northern San Diego, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion in 2005 in one of the biggest federal bribery scandals in recent memory.
Cunningham tells Gingrich in an electronic message he says he sent to the candidate last month that his fellow prisoners, and their families, support Gingrich
Heh.
Since When Were Swiss Bank Acounts Acceptable?
On NPR this morning, one of their bankster apologists was noting that Romney closed his Swiss bank account because recent US crack-downs on tax evaders using these accounts made them politically suspect.
What fairy tale land have these folks been living in?
I’m 49 years old, and for as long as I can remember, “Swiss Bank Account” has been synonymous with tax evasion and concealing the proceeds of illegal activities.
My conclusion is that these guys must have the political and financial acumen of Little Orphan Annie.
Well, I Was Wrong on My Assessment of His SOTU Statement
The one thing that I liked, a task force to investigate bank/mortgage fraud appears to be an attempt to undermine any meaningful review of bank and mortgage practices:
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been celebrated as the progressive Great White Hope. But the danger of assuming leadership is that that individual becomes a target both of attacks and of seduction. And while I’d like to think better of Schneiderman, an announcement earlier this evening has strong hallmarks of Schneiderman falling prey to the combined pressures and blandishments of the Administration and its allies.
………
So get this: this is a committee that will “investigate.” The co-chair, Lanny Breuer, along with DoJ chief Eric Holder, hail from white shoe Washington law firm Covington & Burling, which has deep ties to the financial services industry. Even if they did not work directly for clients in the mortgage business, they come from a firm known for its deep political and regulatory connections (for instance: Gene Ludwig, the Covington partner I engaged for some complicated regulatory work when I was at Sumitomo Bank, later became head of the OCC). We’ve written at length on how the OCC is such a shameless tout for the banking industry that it cannot properly be called a regulator. Similarly, the SEC has been virtually absent from the mortgage beat, no doubt because its enforcement chief, Robert Khuzami, was general counsel to the fixed income department at Deutsche Bank. That area included the trading operation under Greg Lippmann who we have described as Patient Zero of so called mezz CDOs, or to the layperson, toxic mortgage paper that kept the subprime bubble going well beyond its sell date. And we don’t need to say much about the DoJ. It has been missing in action during this entire Administration.
………
It’s clear what the Administration is getting from getting Schneiderman aligned with them. It is much less clear why Schneiderman is signing up. He can investigate and prosecute NOW. He has subpoena powers, staff, and the Martin Act. He doesn’t need to join a Federal committee to get permission to do his job. And this is true for ALL the others agencies represented on this committee. They have investigative and enforcement powers they have chosen not to use. So we are supposed to believe that a group, ex Schneiderman, that has been remarkably complacent, will suddenly get religion on the mortgage front because they are all in a room and Schneiderman is a co-chair?
See also here.
So, this isn’t an attempt to stop law breaking, it’s yet another attempt to cover up law breaking by co-opting people who do want to pursue corruption and law breaking.
It’s like his appointment of Elizabeth Warren to set up the CFPB all over again.
Only About 2½ Years Late
Tim Geithner has pretty much said that he won’t serve in Obama’s next term:
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, the last remaining member of the Obama administration’s original economic team, said he doesn’t expect the president to ask him to stay in office if re-elected.
“He’s not going to ask me to stay on, I’m pretty confident,” Geithner said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “I’m confident he’ll be president. But I’m also confident he’s going to have the privilege of having another secretary of the Treasury.”
Geithner, 50, has led President Barack Obama’s efforts to pull the U.S. economy out of the worst recession since World War II, including overseeing bailouts of automakers General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, which have since emerged from bankruptcy. Before joining the administration in 2009, Geithner was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, playing a key role in the government’s rescue packages for banks including Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC)
Well, after completely f%$#ing the economy, the financial system, and the Democratic Party, through your relentless ass kissing of Wall Street, I guess that your work is done.
It should be noted though, the Cossacks work for the Czar.
FOMC Says that Rates Should Stay Low for 2-3 Years
I would expect Republicans’ head to explode, because they will see this as “support” for Obama.
The Fed’s Open Market Committee is saying that it expects rates to remain at near zero until at least late 2014.
The big news is that they have announced an explicit inflation target, 2%, for the first time ever.
While this is a refreshing step towards Fed transparency, we are in a debt overhang and a liquidity trap, and we should targeting a higher inflation rate, as this devalues debt and gives greater effect to low interest rates.
To my mind, they should be targeting 6-8%, but I’d take 4%.
Full Fed statement after the break.
Press Release
Release Date: January 25, 2012
For immediate release
Press Release
Release Date: January 25, 2012
For immediate release
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in December suggests that the economy has been expanding moderately, notwithstanding some slowing in global growth. While indicators point to some further improvement in overall labor market conditions, the unemployment rate remains elevated. Household spending has continued to advance, but growth in business fixed investment has slowed, and the housing sector remains depressed. Inflation has been subdued in recent months, and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.
Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee expects economic growth over coming quarters to be modest and consequently anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline only gradually toward levels that the Committee judges to be consistent with its dual mandate. Strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks to the economic outlook. The Committee also anticipates that over coming quarters, inflation will run at levels at or below those consistent with the Committee’s dual mandate.
To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with the dual mandate, the Committee expects to maintain a highly accommodative stance for monetary policy. In particular, the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic conditions–including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run–are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.
The Committee also decided to continue its program to extend the average maturity of its holdings of securities as announced in September. The Committee is maintaining its existing policies of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities and of rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction. The Committee will regularly review the size and composition of its securities holdings and is prepared to adjust those holdings as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery in a context of price stability.
Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; Elizabeth A. Duke; Dennis P. Lockhart; Sandra Pianalto; Sarah Bloom Raskin; Daniel K. Tarullo; John C. Williams; and Janet L. Yellen. Voting against the action was Jeffrey M. Lacker, who preferred to omit the description of the time period over which economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate.
2012 Monetary Policy Releases
Obama Goes for Accelerated Review of Healthcare Reform
The Obama administration has decided not to appeal to the full 11th circuit court and go directly to the Supreme Court, which means that we could see a ruling as early as June.
I’m not sure what the tactics are here.
There are three legal questions here
- The first question is whether they can rule on the mandate at all, since the anti-injunction act of 1869 prohibits suits against taxes until the tariff is actually levied.
- The second question is whether if part of the law is struck down, is the entire law struck down. (severability)
- The third question (and the biggie) is whether or not the mandate is constitutional.
The third question is a slam dunk based on precedent, but I expect at least 4 of the justices to go full Bush v. Gore and find some contrived form of logic to ignore that.
It pretty much comes down to Justice Kennedy, but he ruled for Bush in Bush v. Gore, so I think that Obamacare is toast.
Well, We Have Mixed News on the Scott Walker Front
The good news is that some of his former staffers are facing more charges:
A new round of criminal charges is coming soon against at least a couple of Gov. Scott Walker’s former county staffers for doing extensive campaign activity while on the taxpayers’ dime, sources say.
The charges – which should be filed by District Attorney John Chisholm’s office in the next week or two – will be part of the long-running John Doe investigation of Walker’s aides and associates during his tenure as Milwaukee County executive.
Already, the probe has led to multiple felony charges against Walker’s onetime deputy chief of staff, Tim Russell, and former county veterans official Kevin Kavanaugh. They are accused of taking more than $60,000 in donations intended for Operation Freedom, an annual event at the county zoo for veterans and their families.
Russell’s domestic partner, Brian Pierick, was also hit with two felony counts for child enticement.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that under Wisconsin law, until a date is set for the recall election, Walker has no limits to his fund raising, and the Koch suckers have been showering him with money:
The Walker campaign announced on Tuesday that he raised $4.5 million in just the period from December 11 through Jan 17, and has over $2.6 million on hand. In all, he has raised $12 million since January 1, 2011.
“Governor Walker’s message of moving Wisconsin forward continues to resonate with voters,” said communications director Ciara Matthews. “It is this message, and the success of the governor’s reforms, that have inspired people to contribute to his campaign in overwhelming numbers. These donations will allow us to fight back against this baseless recall and ensure Governor Walker can continue to lay the foundation for a more successful Wisconsin and keep government working on the side of taxpayers.”
The press release notes that the donations came from a total of 21,443 contributions, including 16,406 of contributions of $50 or less. But under the surface, it becomes clear that Walker has been taking advantage of a key aspect of the state fundraising law for recalls — that until the election is officially triggered, the targeted incumbent can bring in unlimited donations.
That’s a f%$# load of money. It’s like $2½ for each man, woman, and child in the badger state.
The optimist in me hopes that the money wont matter. The pessimist in me …………
My Take on Obama’s State of the Union Speech
I didn’t expect to be impressed, and I wasn’t. I’m really not one of his fans.
Quick bullet points:
- His nods to populism seemed to be insincere. I really don’t believe that we’ll see any effort to crack down on, for example, Chinese trade/currency manipulation.
- He couldn’t resist inserting yet another “there are people on both sides” who are nasty bit, as was his digression about milk spill regulations, and icky regulations.
- Raising taxes on millionaires, and banning congressional insider trading and lobbying by campaign bundlers are winners, but won’t pass this Congress.
- His statements on spending war savings on infrastructure is nothing new.
- His call for establishing a financial crimes unit is probably a good idea, assuming that it is not just rearranging deck chairs.
- I liked his shout out to Richard Cordray heading the CFPB. It was pretty much his only “in your face” to the ‘Phants.
Jon Stewart Must Love Newt
He does look a bit stunned though
Because the obvious hypocrisy and venality that is Newt must make his job easier.
Stewart’s observation to Newt’s fake outrage:
You imagined your wife, while she was dealing with having MS, would be open to you having sex with another lady you’d already been having sex with for six f%$#king years!” Stewart said. “I think you’ve got a pretty good imagination dispicability-wise.
And then there is Gingrich’s claim to be running as an outsider:
You are the Washington outsider? When Washington gets its prostate checked, it tickles you.
Watch the video. It’s a good way to spend 8 minutes and change.
Oh, This is Prize.
Freddie Dalton Thompson, whose 2008 presidential campaign debacle I called the “Fred Thompson Clown Show,” has endorsed narcissistic sociopath Newt Gingrich for president:
Former Sen. Fred Thompson, the real life lawyer perhaps best known for playing one on television, announced his endorsement of Newt Gingrich Monday evening.
“I have come to the growing realization that Newt Gingrich is the guy who can articulate what America is all about,” Thompson said of the former House speaker on Fox News.
This is kind of a clown show two-fer.
Well, Here’s One Announcement Obama Won’t Make at the SOTU
He might be making some comments about working toward a sellout to settlement with the big banks and the mortgage services.
The reason that he won’t be touting the settlement is because there is no settlement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJanuary 23, 2012STATEMENT FROM [Iowa] ATTORNEY GENERAL TOM MILLER [
Obama toadyLead AG in the negotiations](CHICAGO, Illinois) State Attorneys General from both parties, along with our federal partners, are today discussing the details of the progress we have made so far in settlement negotiations, including the terms we must still resolve. We have not yet reached an agreement with the nation’s five largest servicers, and we won’t reach a settlement any time this week.
As you can tell, I not a big fan of the settlement, and I think we can thank the people who have opposed the deal as currently structured, most notably Yves Smith, who has done yeoman work on teasing out the details and communicating what it all means for months, the recent condemnation of the deal by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is also significant. (And, as an FYI, everyone’s favorite right wing nuts, Judicial Watch, has filed suits to get related documents)
This resembles the groundswell that led to Obama vetoing HR 3808, which allowed some states shoddy documentation practices to go national.
With the increasing complaints from consumer activists about the settlement.
What are the problems?
Well on the micro level (courtesy of Yves Smith), it gives the banksters an incentive to pawn the losses off against the the mortgages that they recapitalized, avoiding the hit themselves, and giving it to pension funds, it incentivizes targeting the largest loans, and so benefits the richest, and there are no meaningful mechanisms to enforce good behavior from the mortgage servicers.
On the macro level, let’s roll Simon Johnson:
The financial sector has been the Obama administration’s Achilles’ heel. Despite coming to power in the middle of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression with a broad mandate for “change,” the administration has consistently deferred to big banks and done its best to keep them in business “as is.”
(Read the rest, really).
The real underlying message much of the disgust with how the government in general, and the Obama administration in particular function is that there has been a failure to stop the looting, and start prosecuting.
New Gingrich, Whiny Bitch
It appears that Newt just can’t get his debate on without a dawg pound in the audience, so hew is threatening to skip debates if they don’t allow the audience to cheer and boo, because it’s important to allow the audience to boo the golden rule, and cheer allowing grannies to die:
Newt Gingrich insists his fans will not be silenced.
Mr. Gingrich, a former House speaker, on Tuesday morning threatened not participate in any future debates with audiences that have been instructed to be silent. That was the case on Monday, when Brian Williams of NBC News asked the audience of about 500 people who assembled for a debate in Tampa to hold their applause until the commercial breaks.
In an interview with the morning show “Fox and Friends,” Mr. Gingrich said NBC’s rules amounted to stifling free speech. In what has become a standard line of attack for his anti-establishment campaign, Mr. Gingrich blamed the media for trying to silence a dissenting point of view.
“I wish in retrospect I’d protested when Brian Williams took them out of it because I think it’s wrong,” Mr. Gingrich said. “And I think he took them out of it because the media is terrified that the audience is going to side with the candidates against the media, which is what they’ve done in every debate.”
Seriously, it appears that Gingrich can’t be at his best without an audience of inbred sociopath teabagger bigots, I guess.
He’s the perfect Republican.
Sarko Gets One Right
The French have passed a law making it illegal to deny the existence of the Armenian Genocide.
I don’t approve laws forbidding speech, but I DO approve of pushing back on the Turkish aggressive policy of denial and disinformation regarding historical fact.
The cynic in me thinks that Nicolas Sarkosy was motivated by the political calculus that bashing Turks would sell with the Neanderthal set in the upcoming election though.
One final note: Serdar Argic, eat my shorts.
Obama’s War on Open Government Continues
They are going after a CIA officer who revealed our chain of gulags and torture:
The Justice Department on Monday charged a former CIA officer with repeatedly leaking classified information, including the identities of agency operatives involved in the capture and interrogation of alleged terrorists.
The case against John Kiriakou, who also served as a senior Senate aide, extends the Obama administration’s crackdown on disclosures of national security secrets. Kiriakou, 47, is the sixth target of a leaks-related prosecution since President Obama took office, exceeding the total number of comparable prosecutions under all previous administrations combined, legal experts said.
Kiriakou, who was among the first to go public with details about the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation measures, was charged with disclosing classified information to reporters and lying to the agency about the origin of other sensitive material he published in a book. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Seriously, this sh%$ is just evil.
There have been more prosecutions of leakers in 3 years of the Obama administration than there had been over the prior two hundred and twenty years.
This is despicable.