Month: April 2012

Nino is F%$#ing Nuts

No Comments

I mean, of course, Antonin Scalia, who just compared Arizona’s “Papers Please” law to the FBI investigating bank robberies:

The debate surrounding Arizona’s immigration law is a heated one — and on Wednesday, Justice Antonin Scalia added to the strong sentiments swirling in the case. Questioning U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Scalia asked what’s wrong with states enforcing federal law, adding, “There is a federal law against robbing federal banks. Can it be made a state crime to rob those banks?”

Charlie pierce has concluded that fat Tony is phoning it in, (See also here.) and that he has realized that he’ll never be chief justice, and he’s bored with the court, and he’s just f%$#ing with use.

I’m inclined to agree.

Because they are Whiny Babies

No Comments

Brad Delong wonders why Wall Street dislikes Barack Obama so much:

A worker bee at a mainline investment bank told me last fall:

Back in 2008 Wall Street was split 40-60 Obama-McCain. Now it is split 10-90 Obama-Romney.

Why? It is not as though Wall Street has done badly under Obama. Stock prices are up and interest rates are down, so leveraged financial institutions long assets–as Wall Street inevitably is–have done very, very well indeed. The standard bargain that the Democrats offer Wall Street has held. It is:

We will try to tax you (and, given the power of your lobbying operation in Congress, probably fail to do so), but we will give you competent economic management in striking contrast to that offered by the ideologically-blinded wingnuts who are the Republicans.

That has been the bargain that the Democrats have offered Wall Street from the days of Hoover to Bush II, and when Wall Street has had a sense of its own long-run interests, it has taken the Democrats up on it. And it has been happy.
But not this time.

Why not? What is going on? What is there about 50% real increases in equity values over less than 3 1/2 years that is not to like?

For the past 30+ years, these guys have been surrounded by people who treat them like they were Pashas, both in their social circles on Wall Street as well both sides of the partisan divide in Washington, DC, so when Barack Obama  calls them “Wall Street Fat Cats”, their heads explode.

This is despite the fact he, and his sidekick Timmy Geithner, bail them out, and quash prosecutions.

One wonders just how insecure these guys are about their value to society. 

Hmm…come to think of it, this answer was a bit more involved than I intended.

Here’s a hint:  You are all worthless parasites.

Meanwhile in the American Elections

No Comments

It looks like Obama’s big donors from 2008 are sitting on their wallets:

President Obama’s re-election campaign is straining to raise the huge sums it is counting on to run against Mitt Romney, with sharp dropoffs in donations from nearly every major industry forcing it to rely more than ever on small contributions and a relative handful of major donors.

From Wall Street to Hollywood, from doctors and lawyers, the traditional big sources of campaign cash are not delivering for the Obama campaign as they did four years ago. The falloff has left his fund-raising totals running behind where they were at the same point in 2008 — though well ahead of Mr. Romney’s — and has induced growing concern among aides and supporters as they confront the prospect that Republicans and their “super PAC” allies will hold a substantial advantage this fall.

With big checks no longer flowing as quickly into his campaign, Mr. Obama is leaning harder on his grass-roots supporters, whose small contributions make up well over half of the money he raised through the end of March, according to reports filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission. And Mr. Obama is asking far more of those large donors still giving, exploiting his joint fund-raising arrangement with the Democratic National Committee to collect five-figure checks from individuals who have already given the maximum $5,000 contribution to his re-election campaign.

“They clearly are feeling the pressure,” said one major Obama fund-raiser, who asked for anonymity to characterize his conversations with campaign officials. “They’re behind where they expected to be. You have to factor in $500 million-plus in Republican super PAC money.”

This is what happens when your message shifts from “Hope and Change” (whatever the F$#@ that means) to “The Guys on the Other Side are Terrifying,” which, while true, (an improvement on the 2008 message in that one respect) is not something that drives people to open up their check books or canvass door to door.

Sarko Comes in 2nd

No Comments

This is the first time since the 1950s that a sitting president of France has not gotten the most votes in the 1st round of elections since the founding of the 5th Republic:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is wooing far-right voters after losing narrowly to his Socialist rival in the presidential election’s first round.

Francois Hollande came top with 28.6% and Mr Sarkozy got 27.1% – the first time a sitting president has lost in the first round.

Third-place Marine Le Pen took the largest share of the vote her far-right National Front has ever won, with 18%.

Referring to her voters, Mr Sarkozy said: “I have heard you.”

“There was this crisis vote that doubled from one election to another – an answer must be given to this crisis vote,” he said.

So, “President Bling-Bling” is going to go right-wing populist racist in the hopes of getting nearly all of Marine Le Pen’s National Front knuckle draggers, because the neither the Left Front and the Democratic Movement voters are receptive to a xenophobic message.

I don’t think that it’s going to work, because Sarkozy is clearly Angela Merkel’s toady in European politics, and the defacto German hegemony in the Euro Zone is something that French populists of both the left and right cannot abide.

About all Sarkozy has going for him is that he’s more stylish than the rather colorless Hollande, but it will be a long shot for him on the May 6 runoff.

Sarkosy knows this, which is why he is trying to up the number of debates between the two finalsts to 3 from the usual 1.

Austerity Isn’t Working for Qnyone

No Comments

The 2nd most obnoxious people in Europe in their support of the magical austerity fairy are the Dutch, and now their coalition government has collapsed over their own austerity plans:

More uncertainty loomed for the euro zone on Saturday after the prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, said he expected new elections to take place following the collapse of talks on new austerity measures.

The announcement is unwelcome news for Europe’s single currency zone, particularly because the Netherlands is one of just four countries using the euro currency that have maintained a coveted AAA credit rating.

………

The Dutch government has taken a tough line on bailouts for Greece and given strong support to Germany’s efforts to force through a new pact on fiscal responsibility in the euro zone.

But the country’s domestic politics have been plunged into crisis because targets for the budget deficit, laid down by the European Union, were missed.

On Saturday it became clear that a package of measures that had been under negotiation for several weeks, intended to save about 14 billion euros, or $18 billion, would not be supported by the Freedom Party, led by Geert Wilders, a populist right-wing and anti-Islam campaigner. The proposal included spending curbs and tax increases.

If 90% of politics is economics, then the right wing populist parties springing forth throughout Europe have a bright future, because, as much as it pains me, they are right on the economics of the situation.

Of course, the far left parties are largely correct on this too, but the mainstream parties are completely clueless.

Hell of a choice.

The Manchin-Lieberman Axis In The Senate

No Comments

So called Democrat Joe Manchin is refusing to endorse Barack Obama for president, and rather unsurprisingly, so is Joe Lieberman.

Actually, it is a bit of a surprise.  I would have expected Lieberman to endorse the Republican again.

But the West Virginia Senate election is a big priority of the DSCC, which is why I won’t give to the DSCC.

Whatever money I have to contribute goes to real Democrats.

It Won’t Happen, It Makes Too Much Sense

No Comments

In consideration of the current budget trends the US Air Force is looking at smaller and simpler single purpose satellites:

Smaller, simpler satellite designs could begin making their way into service for mainstream U.S. Air Force missions in the middle of the next decade, a shift that would break with a longtime tradition of building large, expensive spacecraft for the Pentagon.

This shift from complex and expensive satellites could come about because Gen. William Shelton, Air Force Space Command chief, and other military leaders are embracing the concept of “disaggregation,” or separating capabilities once resident on a single platform onto multiple systems. It could simplify satellite design and create what Shelton calls a “targeting problem” for an adversary looking to cripple U.S. space-based services, by expanding the number of satellites in a constellation.

If disaggregation materializes, it could underpin a shift for major constellations—military satellite communications, missile warning, precision timing and navigation, weather and space situational awareness. While it could prompt an end—or at least slow procurement—of today’s satellites, the strategy could also be an opportunity for an industry facing reduced government spending to keep design teams intact.

Two possible near-term opportunities could be Shelton’s interest in using a smaller, simpler approach for both the next-generation space situational awareness (SSA) and weather spacecraft.

The advantages are:

  • You can develop and field satellites more quickly.
  • If a contractor really screws the pooch in terms of performance, schedule, or cost, it’s small enough to cancel.
  • You can have real competition, or perhaps competitive dual sourcing between vendors.
  • The resulting network would be a much more tolerant to a failure of a single satellite.

The downside is that the contractors who make this stuff will have less of an opportunity to over-promise and under-deliver, generating the necessary profits to employ retired generals as high priced consultants.

All things considered, I consider this initiative doomed because of this, but I’m a cynic.

Payback’s A Bitch

No Comments

Everyone is freaking out because Argentina is renationalizing its formerly state owned oil company, YPF:

Argentina says it will seize a controlling interest in oil company YPF that is owned by Spanish firm Repsol.

President Cristina Fernandez said a bill would be presented to the Senate allowing the government to expropriate 51% of YPF shares.

The move, announced on national television, was welcomed by her cabinet and Argentina’s regional governors.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo said the action had “broken the climate of friendship”.

Speaking after a government crisis meeting, Mr Margello told journalists his government would take “clear and forceful measures”, although he did not specify what these would be.

In a statement Repsol said it “considers the announced measure to be manifestly unlawful and gravely discriminatory”.

The sale of the former state owned energy company was in the middle of the Argentine financial crisis, when creditor nations held a figurative gun to the Argentine government’s head, so it was sold at fire sale prices.

As to concerns about Argentina no longer being “friendly” to foreign investment, it’s not a big deal.

Argentina has been growing more rapidly than all of its neighbors, including the vaunted Brazil.

Additionally, foreign investment won’t go away, though it might demand an additional 50 basis points return.

Also, reduced foreign investment also less risk of the speculative inrushes that cause crashes which result in the loss of economic sovereignty and a shredding of middle class.

The recent lesson of Argentina, and of Iceland, as well as that of Malaysia during the Asian financial crisis, is that the so called Washington consensus, that currency speculation and completely unimpeded capital flows, that this will produce unparalleled economic growth, is completely wrong.

This is not an expropriation, this is justice. The assets were stolen by the looters in the first place.

Good Patent News Everyone

No Comments

For once, the generic drug manufacturers win one:

The US Supreme Court ruled that generic drug makers can challenge big-name pharmaceutical firms in court to stop them from broadening the scope of their patent descriptions.

The measure overturns a 2010 appeals court ruling and confirms an earlier decision by a federal judge that ordered the US subsidiary of Danish laboratory Novo Nordisk to narrow the description of its patent on repaglinide, an anti-diabetes drug sold under the name Prandin.

Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories, the US subsidiary of the Indian firm Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, is seeking to produce a generic version of Prandin.

However Novo Nordisk amended the wording of his patent to extend it, and block the Caraco’s request to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to produce a generic version of the drug.

The FDA cannot approve the sale of a drug that breaks patent protection laws.

In a unanimous decision by the nine Supreme Court justices on Tuesday, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that “a generic company can employ the counterclaim to challenge a brand’s overbrand use code.”

Courts have gotten much more skeptical of what I call overbroad patent bullsh%$ over the years, so this is more of  a good trend.

Israeli’s Get to Qualify Their Own Missiles on the F-35

No Comments

I think that the folks at Lockheed and the F-35 program office were pretty desperate to get the Israelis in as a customer for the JSF, as evidenced by the facility with which the IDF/AF has been able to incorporate indigenous systems into the aircraft:

The Israeli air force’s Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters will be armed with a mix of US- and Israeli-made weapon systems, sources have confirmed.

“At least one main weapon system” for the nation’s conventional take-off and landing F-35As will be of Israeli origin, sources related to the issue said on 17 April. The Israeli air force has previously expressed its wish to equip the type with a nationally-developed new-generation air-to-air missile.

………

While the first batch of aircraft will carry the integral electronic warfare system being supplied under the Lockheed-led Joint Strike Fighter programme, it is expected that this will later be “enhanced” by additional units developed in Israel.

You’ll notice that none of the other customers, or for that matter the partners in the development program, have had this sort of ability to integrate their own systems into this.

Basically, the market dynamics are such that the if the Israelis are not willing to buy a US aircraft, it would seriously hinder other foreign sales, so they got some special considerations with regards to integrating their own systems.

The Silly Season is Upon Us

1 Comment

The Cookie Monster? Seriously?

The general election campaign is on, and really, really stupid

The Democratic Party of Pennsylvania has decided to make an issue of Mitt’s characterizing cookies from a beloved Pittsburgh bakery as 7-11 cookies.

Seriously?

Seriously?

Mitt is a guy who has signed onto of the right wing’s war on women, and you break out the f%$#ing  cookie monster?

Gawd, their heads are so far up their asses that they resemble a Klein Bottle.

It Appears that There is Such a Thing as a Thinking Conservative

No Comments

Let me say that, since he was kicked out of his think thank job at AEI, David Frum has been a source of remarkably honest and thoughtful analysis.

A case in point is his comparison of Lyndon Johnson and Barack Obama in reviewing Robert Caro’s bio of Johnson:

It’s hard not to detect in these pages an unspoken critique of Barack Obama. Yes, certainly, Obama shares Lyndon Johnson’s gift for driving opponents crazy, if it is a gift. But the use of power Caro so vividly describes is not something that comes naturally to our current president. The constant searching for opportunities; the shameless love-bombing of opponents; the endless wooing of supporters; the deft deployment of inducements and threats—these are the low arts that led to Johnson’s high success. You can see why a high-minded leader like Barack Obama would recoil from the Johnson style and embrace Kennedyesque rhetorical grandeur instead. Such presidents contribute great phrases to quotation books, but they tend not to add lasting laws to the statute books—or enduring change to the history books.

It appears that there are are no thinking conservatives in America, so we have to export them to Canada.
last ‘graph

Best OP/ED of the Year So Far

No Comments

I really cannot ad much to this:

Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012

In memoriam: After years of health problems, Facts has finally died.

A quick review of the long and illustrious career of Facts reveals some of the world’s most cherished absolutes: Gravity makes things fall down; 2 + 2 = 4; the sky is blue.

But for many, Facts’ most memorable moments came in simple day-to-day realities, from a child’s certainty of its mother’s love to the comforting knowledge that a favorite television show would start promptly at 8 p.m.

Over the centuries, Facts became such a prevalent part of most people’s lives that Irish philosopher Edmund Burke once said: “Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.”

To the shock of most sentient beings, Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet. Though few expected Facts to pull out of its years-long downward spiral, the official cause of death was from injuries suffered last week when Florida Republican Rep. Allen West steadfastly declared that as many as 81 of his fellow members of theU.S. House of Representatives are communists.

…………

Go read all the rest.

It’s Jobless Thursday!

No Comments

Another disappointing week, last week was revised up, and initial claims this week were worse than forecast, 386K, down 2K from last week, only last week was revised up by 8K, with the 4-week moving average and continuing claim rising, though extended/emergency claims fell.

What I think we are seeing, and I think the fact that home sales fell in March reinforces this, is that the generally good economic news in the 1st quarter was (at least partially) an artifact of the unseasonably warm winter, which moved a lot of economic activity a few months earlier.

Basically, we saw time shifting, and thought that it was a recovery.

What a Surprise

No Comments

Obama announces a DoJ investigative task force to investigate foreclosure fraud, in order to bring the state Attorney Generals, most notably NY’s Eric Schneidermann, and they are not staffing it:

Three months ago, in his State of the Union speech, President Obama announced a new task force to investigate mortgage fraud and bring some measure of relief to the 12 million American families who are either losing their homes or in danger of losing them.

The new Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group would be co-chaired by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, U.S. Attorney John Walsh of Colorado and three Washington insiders from the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Obama said, “This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.”

Whether or not the President, attorney general and others intend to get around to this task someday, “speed” was a terrible word to choose. Because 85 days after that speech, there is no sign of any activity.

………

Yes, for a few days, there seemed to be a renewed sense of purpose and focus from the administration. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder held his own news conference and announced that at least 55 Justice Department lawyers, agents, analysts and investigators would be assigned to the effort. A news release promised 30 staffers would be joining efforts “in the coming weeks.”

………

On March 9 — 45 days after the speech and 30 days after the announcement — we met with Schneiderman in New York City and asked him for an update. He had just returned from Washington, where he had been personally looking for office space. As of that date, he had no office, no phones, no staff and no executive director. None of the 55 staff members promised by Holder had materialized. On April 2, we bumped into Schneiderman on a train leaving Washington for New York and learned that the situation was the same.

Tuesday, calls to the Justice Department’s switchboard requesting to be connected with the working group produced the answer, “I really don’t know where to send you.” After being transferred to the attorney general’s office and asking for a phone number for the working group, the answer was, “I’m not aware of one.”

The promises of the President have led to little or no concrete action.

In fact, the new Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group was the sixth such entity formed since the start of the financial crisis in 2009. The grand total of staff working for all of the previous five groups was one, according to a surprised Schneiderman. In Washington, where staffs grow like cherry blossoms, this is a remarkable occurrence.

Schneidermann got punked.

There were over 1000 FBI agents assigned to the Savings and Loan crisis, so 55 is a joke, but they aren’t even staffing that.

If there was any question as to whether the banksters owned Obama, it’s been answered.

And on the other side is Mitt, who is a bankster.

What a choice.

Signs of the Apocalypse: Bloomberg Edition

No Comments

The editors at Bloomberg are calling for an increase in the minimum wage:

Here’s an unhappy observation about the minimum wage: Congress last increased the rate in stages in 2006, topping it out at $7.25 an hour in 2009, or $15,080 a year.

That amount, when adjusted for inflation, is actually lower than what a minimum-wage worker earned in 1968 and is too meager to offer anyone the chance to climb out of poverty, let alone afford basic goods and services.

About 10 states are now considering raising the rate, and Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, is proposing to increase the federal rate in three increments to $9.80 an hour in 2014. Many of the initiatives under consideration would smartly tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, meaning that those workers’ wages would finally keep up with inflation.

………

It’s also becoming clear that many Americans are being forced to take lower-paying jobs and that a low-wage bias is creeping into the economy, as Bloomberg economist Joseph Brusuelas recently put it. In many cases, minimum-wage work is all that’s available, which may explain why such workers are older and better-educated than they were three decades ago. In 2010, nearly 44 percent of minimum-wage workers had either attended or graduated from college, up from 25.2 percent in 1979, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal think tank.

Raising the minimum wage won’t entirely solve the problem of anemic incomes, but it would help. Economists have long found that boosting the minimum wage can raise income levels for those earning just above the minimum. Employers, seeking to protect “wage ladders,” often bump up salaries for slightly higher-paid employees, too.

………

The editorial page of Bloomberg is not like the moon-bat insane Wall Street Journal‘s page, they don’t contract facts on the front page in the OP/Ed Section, but this is not a populist publication by any means, and they just called out the neoliberal consensus that calls for more suffering from the least of us.

I’m beginning to think that economic populism may be a winner this year.