Year: 2013

New Zealand Decides Looks at the Mess that is Cyprus, and Decides that it Has a Purty Mouth

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When Troika (really, the Germans) decided that the solution to Cyprus’ problem with its banks was to take money from insured accounts, they had no idea the firestorm that it would unleash.

It appears that the Troika (really, the Germans) have found the limits of the authority, and hence the misery, that they can inflict, and so the Cypriot Parliament voted down the proposal to take money from depositor accounts:

The Cypriot parliament has thrown out a controversial plan to skim €5.8bn (£5bn) from savers’ bank accounts, in a move that risks plunging the eurozone into a fresh crisis and heightens expectations that the cash-strapped country will seek a funding lifeline from Russia.

Cyprus has just 24 hours to find a solution to its funding gap before its banks are due to reopen following the dramatic no vote on Tuesday night, which failed to support a hastily renegotiated change to the original deal.

Late on Tuesday night the eurozone governments said that despite the vote Cyprus would still need to raise the €5.8 bn – a third of the €17bn bailout.

There are limits to bailing out hedge funds and large European banks, I guess.

Unfortunately, the good folks in New Zealand, which, as Yves Smith observes is already a haven for fraudulent corporations, had decided to abandon the whole concept of insuring bank deposit:

Picture this: you check your bank balance and see that your $1000 lies safely in your savings account.

That night you switch on the evening news and find to your horror that your bank has failed.

It turns out that the Government has had to move quickly, and has placed your bank in statutory management.

The next day you check your bank balance and you find that you have taken what is referred to in the banking industry as a “haircut”.

In other words, part of your savings remain, let’s say 80 per cent, but 20 per cent of it has been frozen – perhaps forever – while the statutory manager sorts out the mess.

You have just entered the world of Open Bank Resolution (OBR).

It may come as a surprise that the Reserve Bank already has the power to freeze bank deposits. The problem for the central bank has been a lack of technical infrastructure to implement the policy, should the need arise. The bank said last week that it was in discussion with the banks on “pre-positioning” their systems for OBR.

Un f%$#ing believable

A press release from the a New Zealand Green Party MP follows after the break:

National planning Cyprus-style solution for New Zealand

Tuesday, 19 Mar 2013 | Press Release
Contact: Russel Norman MP
Tags: Banking & Finance, Smart Economics, Economics

The National Government is pushing a Cyprus-style solution to bank failure in New Zealand which will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts, the Green Party said today.

Open Bank Resolution (OBR) is Finance Minister Bill English’s favoured option dealing with a major bank failure. If a bank fails under OBR, all depositors will have their savings reduced overnight to fund the bank’s bail out.

“Bill English is proposing a Cyprus-style solution for managing bank failure here in New Zealand – a solution that will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts,” said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman.

“The Reserve Bank is in the final stages of implementing a system of managing bank failure called Open Bank Resolution. The scheme will put all bank depositors on the hook for bailing out their bank.

“Depositors will overnight have their savings shaved by the amount needed to keep the bank afloat.

“While the details are still to be finalised, nearly all depositors will see their savings reduced by the same proportions.

“Bill English is wrong to assume everyday people are able to judge the soundness of their bank. Not even sophisticated investors like Merrill Lynch saw the global financial crisis coming.

“If he insists on pushing through this unfair scheme, small depositors can be protected ahead of time with a notified savings threshold below which their savings will be safe from any interference.”

Dr Norman questioned the Government’s insistence on pursuing Open Bank Resolution when virtually no other OECD country uses it.

“Open Bank Resolution is unprecedented in the world. Most OECD countries run deposit insurance schemes which protect people’s deposits up to a maximum ranging from $100,000 – $250,000,” Dr Norman said.

“OBR is not in line with Australia, which protects bank deposits up to $250,000.

“A deposit insurance scheme is a much simpler, well-tested alternative to Open Bank Resolution. It rewards safe banks with lower premiums and limits the cost to taxpayers of a bank failure.

“Deposit insurance will, however, require the Reserve Bank to oversee and regulate our banks more closely – a measure which is ultimately the best protection against bank failure.”

“The Reserve Bank is in the final stages of implementing a system of managing bank failure called Open Bank Resolution. The scheme will put all bank depositors on the hook for bailing out their bank.

“Depositors will overnight have their savings shaved by the amount needed to keep the bank afloat.

“While the details are still to be finalised, nearly all depositors will see their savings reduced by the same proportions.

“Bill English is wrong to assume everyday people are able to judge the soundness of their bank. Not even sophisticated investors like Merrill Lynch saw the global financial crisis coming.

“If he insists on pushing through this unfair scheme, small depositors can be protected ahead of time with a notified savings threshold below which their savings will be safe from any interference.”

Dr Norman questioned the Government’s insistence on pursuing Open Bank Resolution when virtually no other OECD country uses it.

“Open Bank Resolution is unprecedented in the world. Most OECD countries run deposit insurance schemes which protect people’s deposits up to a maximum ranging from $100,000 – $250,000,” Dr Norman said.

“OBR is not in line with Australia, which protects bank deposits up to $250,000.

“A deposit insurance scheme is a much simpler, well-tested alternative to Open Bank Resolution. It rewards safe banks with lower premiums and limits the cost to taxpayers of a bank failure.

“Deposit insurance will, however, require the Reserve Bank to oversee and regulate our banks more closely – a measure which is ultimately the best protection against bank failure.”

Finally!

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A judge has ruled that national security letters are unconstitutional:

Ultra-secret national security letters that come with a gag order on the recipient are an unconstitutional impingement on free speech, a federal judge in California ruled in a decision released Friday.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered the government to stop issuing so-called NSLs across the board, in a stunning defeat for the Obama administration’s surveillance practices. She also ordered the government to cease enforcing the gag provision in any other cases. However, she stayed her order for 90 days to give the government a chance to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“We are very pleased that the Court recognized the fatal constitutional shortcomings of the NSL statute,” said Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed a challenge to NSLs on behalf of an unknown telecom that received an NSL in 2011. “The government’s gags have truncated the public debate on these controversial surveillance tools. Our client looks forward to the day when it can publicly discuss its experience.”

The telecommunications company received the ultra-secret demand letter in 2011 from the FBI seeking information about a customer or customers. The company took the extraordinary and rare step of challenging the underlying authority of the National Security Letter, as well as the legitimacy of the gag order that came with it.

I would expect the Obama administration to appeal this.

They have yet to seen an excess of the state security apparatus that they won’t fully support.

Yes, Please F%$# the Cable Networks

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Yes, I’m actually rooting for Verizon against the cable networks.

You see Verizon wants a new deal for its content.

It does not want to pay for each person who has access to a network, but rather it wants to pay only for the people who actually watch the shows:

Verizon wants to change how it pays television providers for their shows, according to a new report.

 The company, which operates Fios TV, is currently in talks with several “midtier and smaller” television companies to pay them not for the number of subscribers their channels can reach, but by the number of people who actually watch their shows, according to the Wall Street Journal, which interviewed the company’s executives.

 “We are paying for a customer who never goes to the channel,” Verizon Fios TV chief programming negotiator Terry Denson told the Wall Street Journal.

 The payment structure would be passed on a “unique view” model in which one person who spends at least five minutes on the channel would count towards a fee, according to the Journal. Verizon would not need to pay for anyone who didn’t actually spend that time on the channel.

If they can apply this generally it makes it less economically viable to use things like ESPN to overload the cable networks, and our cable bills, with stuff that no one else watches.

This is a decent step toward à la carte content delivery.

It’s Our War in Syria Now

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We may not be supplying arms directly, but United States has just plucked someone no one has heard of in order to have “their man” in charge of the insurgency:

Syria’s main exile opposition coalition elected a naturalized Syrian-born American citizen early Tuesday to be the first prime minister of an interim Syrian government, charged with funneling aid to rebels inside Syria and offering an alternative to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

By choosing Ghassan Hitto, 50, an information technology executive who lived in Texas until recently, the Syrian opposition coalition concluded months of contentious efforts to unite behind a leader, under pressure from the United States and its allies, which demanded that the opposition set up clear chains of command as a condition of increasing aid to the rebels.

Mr. Hitto, a relative unknown in opposition politics who rose to prominence recently through efforts to improve the delivery of humanitarian aid, was far from a unanimous choice. After a day of maneuvering and voting on Monday that lasted into early Tuesday, he won 35 votes, just three more than Assad Mustafa, a former agricultural minister under Mr. Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad.

Mr. Hitto faces formidable challenges in his quest to to establish administrative authority over areas of northern Syria that have been secured by the rebels.

(emphasis mine)

If you don’t think that this guy was hand picked by the US State Department, the CIA, and the Pentagon, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell to you.

BTW, when you look at the history of exiles chosen by the US to rule, Achmed Chalabi and Hamid Karzai come to mind, the history is not pretty.

As the saying goes, “ない愚かさはない薬です”.*

*Pronounced in Japanese, “baka ni tsukeru kusuri wanai”, which means, “There is no medicine for stupidity.” Apologies for any inaccuracies in the text, I do not know Japanese.

What Gaius Said

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Donating to the DCCC means helping Dems who vote like Republicans:

The DCCC is the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the group of congresspeople and staff supposedly responsible for electing House Democrats. It’s led by “ex”–Blue Dog and New Dem Steve Israel, Nancy Pelosi’s hand-picked choice for the job.

 We’ve written about Israel before. To the world his job is simply to elect Democrats, but to the moneymen and -women behind the corporate wing of the party, his job is to:

  • Elect corporate Democrats to the House
  • Keep progressives out of office
  • Make sure pro-corporate Republican leaders like Cantor and Paul Ryan never face credible challenges

Seriously.  So long as the national Democratic Congressional election infrastructure, and Congressional election fundraising is dominated by corporatocrats, don’t give to them.

Pick and choose your candidates. Don’t let these corporate ratf%$3s make that choice for you.

FWIW,  I would give similar advice to Republicans too. 

It’s really pretty basic, do your homework, and chose whom you support, don’t let the Beltway crowd make your choice.

Still Looking for Senator Menendez’ Birth Certificate

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Yes, the folks at the clown show known as The Daily Caller have decided, notwithstanding sworn statements from prostitutes that they were paid to lie, their fearless journamalists, they are still looking for the real killer:

Responding to reports that Dominican Republic police have concluded that three women were paid to make false claims that they had sex with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) for money, The Daily Caller, which published a report in November 2012 detailing similar allegations, says it is still investigating the story.

Seriously, the first rule here is that when you are in a hole, stop digging.

I Have a New Rule for Finance and Fraud

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The first was coined by Eric Falkenstein:

People who meticulously avoid email should not be trusted, because it is simply too calculating, as if they know they are regularly committing crimes. A phone conversation can always be disavowed, you just say you were talking about last weekend’s bar mitzvah.

The 2nd rule, which I call Saroff’s Rule:

If a financial transaction is complex enough to require that a news organization use a cartoon to explain it, its purpose is to deceive.

Well, now I have another rule, if your business plan requires an extraterritorial location not subject to any national law, it is because the principals involved intend to be lawless:

A company named Blueseed is a year away from offering entrepreneurs an inexpensive place, near Silicon Valley, in which to develop their products.

 “Blueseed will station a ship 12 nautical miles from the coast of San Francisco, in international waters. The location will allow startup entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world to start or grow their company near Silicon Valley, without the need for a U.S. work visa. The ship will be converted into a coworking and co-living space, and will have high-speed Internet access and daily transportation to the mainland via ferry boat. So far, over 1000 entrepreneurs from 60+ countries expressed interest in living on the ship.”

No Civil Rights Act, no Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, no Fair Labor Standards Act, no Securities Exchange Act, no RICO statute, no consumer protection laws, no laws against slavery or indentured servitude, and indeterminate tax jurisdiction.

If you get an offer from these people, run the other way.

H/t Naked Capitalism.

Priceless

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The Michigan state legislature, chock full of wingnuts, after losing an initiative on creating emergency managers for localities, promptly repassed the law with an attached appropriation to make it unchallengable.

And now they have appointed an emergency manager for Detroit, who has tax liens on his home in Maryland:

The man charged with fixing Detroit’s faltering finances has been hit with four liens in four years from the state of Maryland for unpaid taxes, records show.

 State records show Kevyn D. Orr, who was appointed emergency manager on Thursday, has two outstanding liens on his $1 million home in Chevy Chase, Md., for $16,000 in unemployment taxes in 2010 and 2011. Two other liens of more than $16,000 in unemployment and income taxes were satisfied in 2010 and 2011, records show.

 Orr said he didn’t know anything about the liens when shown records of them Friday morning by The Detroit News.

 “I don’t know what they are,” Orr said, as his new boss, Gov. Rick Snyder, sat next to him in The News’ offices. “That’s surprising to me, to be honest.”

 Late afternoon, a spokeswoman for Snyder — who appointed Orr to the $275,000 per year post Thursday — said Orr spent the day researching the issue and would pay “in full ASAP.” The Washington, D.C., bankruptcy attorney blamed the problems on an outside accountant hired to file his tax returns, said Sara Wurfel, a Snyder spokeswoman.

He had 4 liens filed on his home, and did not know about it. Yeah ……… right.

The emergency management process is a clown show for a reason, and it’s no accident that over half of the black voters in Michigan will be under emergency managers.

First they cut state aid to troubled municipalities, and then effectively abolish .

The motivation for this is two fold:

  • Modern movement (teabagger) conservatives visceral opposition to majority minority communities having meaningful self rule.
  • By eliminating self rule, they eliminate electoral possibilities for less senior politicians.
    • Basically, they are hoping to eliminate the “farm system” for a generation of politicians for political advantage.

That is why we are seeing this clown show.

They don’t care about governance, they just care about power. Everything is subverted to to that.

Solipsistic Narcissists

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Now that his son has come out, Senator Rob Portman becomes a supporter of gay marriage:

Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman on Thursday announced he has reversed his longtime opposition to same-sex marriage after reconsidering the issue because his 21-year-old son, Will, is gay.

 Portman said his son, a junior at Yale University, told him and his wife, Jane, that he’s gay and “it was not a choice, it was who he is and that he had been that way since he could remember.”

 “It allowed me to think of this issue from a new perspective, and that’s of a Dad who loves his son a lot and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have — to have a relationship like Jane and I have had for over 26 years,” Portman told reporters in an interview at his office.

 The conversation the Portmans had with their son two years ago led to him to evolve on the issue after he consulted clergy members, friends — including former Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter is gay — and the Bible.

 “The overriding message of love and compassion that I take from the Bible, and certainly the Golden Rule, and the fact that I believe we are all created by our maker, that has all influenced me in terms of my change on this issue,” Portman said, adding that he feels that “in a way, this strengthens the institution of marriage.”

 Portman said his son didn’t push him to make his announcement, though he “encouraged me.”

 Portman, who backed the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act now under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, said he now thinks parts of that bill should be repealed, though he hasn’t considered introducing such legislation himself because economic policy issues are his specialty.

So, how do we make legislators have children who grow up in poverty?

Seriously, if it doesn’t happen to them and theirs, it does not exist.

Un-Dirtyword-Believable

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The New York Police Department has established a policy to conduct criminal background checks on the victims of domestic abuse:

Women who report domestic violence are exposing themselves to arrest under a new NYPD directive that orders cops to run criminal checks on the accused and the accuser, The Post has learned.

The memo by Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski requires detectives to look at open warrants, complaint histories and even the driving records of both parties.

“You have no choice but to lock them up” if the victims turn out to have warrants, including for minor offenses like unpaid tickets, a police source said.

“This is going to deter victims of domestic violence . . . They’re going to be scared to come forward.”

The directive tells detectives that when they are investigating cases of domestic violence, they should run a search that cross-references all NYPD databases.

Beside warrants, a person’s criminal record and history of making criminal complaints should be checked, the directive says.

I’m beginning to think that the NYPD needs another Knapp Commission a the reforms associated with such an endeavor.  (The whole racial profiling of Muslims thing, and the abuse of protestors comes to mind.)

There is a lot of rot in the force, and it this fish is rotting at the head.

The Maryland Lege Gets One Right

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The death penalty is no more in Maryland:

The General Assembly voted to repeal the death penalty Friday, calling for an end to Maryland’s 375-year history of capital punishment and joining a growing number of states outlawing the practice.

 After nearly two hours of impassioned debate, the House of Delegates approved Gov. Martin O’Malley’s repeal legislation, 82-56, sending the measure to the governor for his signature. The state Senate voted 27-20 for repeal last week.

 “We’re a better state for ending it,” said Del. Sandy Rosenberg, a Democrat from Baltimore who has long pushed for repeal.

Absolutely.

Who Says that Irony is Dead

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Yes, it’s ironic that one of the leading opponents of Marijuana decriminalization in New York State was was busted for possession, but true irony would involve him being beaten up by said cop”

Republican New York State Assemblyman Steve Katz (AD-99) was arrested Thursday morning for possession of marijuana after he was pulled over for speeding to Albany for a legislative session. The New York State Trooper who pulled over Katz smelled marijuana in the conservative Assemblyman’s car. Katz then surrendered a bag of weed to the Trooper.

 Katz, who has strong Tea Party backing in the lower Hudson Valley, has opposed legalizing medical marijuana treatments for New Yorkers with conditions such as cancer and glaucoma while in the Assembly. The outspoken conservative with was first elected to the Assembly in 2010. He sits on the alcoholism and drug abuse committee, as well as its committees on higher education, mental health and economic development.

I do love the headline to this story though, “Katznip“.

It’s Bank Failure Friday!!! (On Sunday)

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No banks, but I just noticed some credit union closings:

  1. Amez United Credit Union, Detroit, MI  <===My bad, this one was on Feb 19, I missed it.
  2. I.C.E. Federal Credit Union, Inglewood, CA
  3. Pepsi Cola Federal Credit Union, Buena Park, CA

Full NCUA list

I think that this is the first time since I started following this that credit union closings were the same as bank closings.

It probably means nothing.

That Sound You Hear is Millions of Eurozoners Moving Their Money to Swiss Bank Accounts

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Well, we have already seen how the economic crisis is treated around the world.

The tax payers take it on the chin, and the bond holders, who under laws have no claim to payment from bankrupt banks, get all (or nearly all of) their money.

Well, the EU powers that be have taken it a step further, by stealing money from the account holders to pay the bond holders:

European finance ministers have agreed an £8.7bn bailout for Cyprus which includes all Cypriot bank customers handing over up to 10% of their savings.

 Cyprus becomes the fifth country after Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain to turn to the eurozone for financial help amid the region’s debt crisis, but also faces a possible run on its banks as depositors try to avoid losing up to 10% of their savings.

 The savers, half of whom are thought to be Russian, will raise almost €6bn. It is the first time a bailout has included such a measure.

 “I wish I was not the minister to do this,” the Cypriot finance minister, Michael Sarris, said after 10 hours of late-night talks in which eurozone finance ministers agreed the package. “Much more money could have been lost in a bankruptcy of the banking system or indeed of the country.”

 Without a rescue, Cyprus would default and threaten to unravel investor confidence in the eurozone, a renewed confidence fostered by the European Central Bank’s promise last year to do whatever it takes to support the euro.

They do not understand what this means.

Something north of 50% of the deposits in Cypriot banks will be gone in the next few months, going to banks in Germany, Switzerland, or into mattresses.

This comment is delusional:

Such levies break the taboo of hitting bank depositors with losses, but [ Dutch finance minister Jeroen] Dijsselbloem said it would not have otherwise been possible to salvage its financial sector, which is around eight times the size of the economy.

They have just destroyed the financial sector in Cyprus, and perhaps through much of the Euro Zone.

Since the 1930s, in the developed world, at least, deposit insurance that makes the the depositors, at least the smaller ones, whole has been the core of our banking system.

This will likely precipitate a return to the days before the FDIC and its brethren around the world, when people stored kept their wealth in safes, or in commodities like gold, and the (temporarily)better off of members of the EU have just made it insane for anyone to ever put more than a few days walking around money in the banks of any Euro Zone nation. (Except perhaps for Germany and the Netherlands, for now.)

H/t Atrios.

Someone Got Smacked With a Clue Stick at the Pentagon

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Following a firestorm of protest the Department of Defense is backing off of their plans to have a drone medal which would outrank the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart:

The military has stopped production of a new medal for remote warfare troops as it considers complaints from veterans and lawmakers over the award, a government official said Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered a review of the Distinguished Warfare Medal, which was to be awarded to troops who operate drones and use other technological skills to fight America’s wars from afar. Announcement of the review is expected at a Pentagon news conference later Tuesday.

Lawmakers and veterans groups have complained that although troops can get the new medal for work far from the battlefield, it has been ranked above medals for those who served on the front line in harm’s way, such as the Purple Heart given to wounded troops.

If the review agrees with complaints about the medal, it would likely have to be renamed and new medals manufactured, the government official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

You know, with half a brain would have figures out that it would unleash a sh%$ storm.

Whoever came up with this idea should be peeling potatoes for the next few months.

I Worked There for 2 Years

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It looks like the Pentagon will shutter down BAE’s plant in York Pennsylvania for 2 years:

A contentious political battle erupted last year when the Army opted to end production of the Abrams tank. Now the Army faces a repeat, this time, over the Bradley.

The manufacturer of the Army’s Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, BAE Systems, is seeking to persuade the service to reverse a decision to stop work at the company’s assembly line in York, Penn., for three years beginning in 2014.

BAE executives are pleading the case that is often made in these situations: It would be more costly to the government to shut down and reopen the line three years later than it would be to keep it open, even with a reduced workload. Army officials defend their decision as a necessary move to cut costs in the face of declining budgets. They also contend that closing down the BAE plant temporarily should not cause any risk to the force, as the Army owns a large fleet of more than 3,000 Bradleys, most of which have low mileage and have been updated with new weapons and electronics.

What is particularly notable is this map that they included with the story.  It’s a list of where their subcontractors are located:

Seriously, the overpriced stuff that we buy for our military would not be so f%$#ing  overpriced if defense contractors did not play “paint by numbers” with states and Congressional districts to game our politica system.

I’m not sure how to fix this, but this sh%$ needs to end.

When is Being in a Car Accident Not the Worst Thing to Happen to You All Day?

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When you are returning from a field trip to CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference), where you have meet attendees who argue that the slaves should never have been emancipated.

I was involved in an accident with a toy Tour bus carrying students from the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, who were returning from this field trip.

Light posting for a while.

Posted via mobile.

OK, Google is Going Full Evil

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The Inevitable Downfall Video (NSFW)

Google is killing its Google Reader RSS Reader:

Google Reader, one of the world’s most popular RSS readers, is shutting down on July 1, 2013, Google announced Wednesday.

 The search giant is pulling the plug on the 7-year old project citing “declining usage.” Google says it is shuttering Reader and deprecating or shutting down a number of other services as part of the company’s “spring cleaning” initiative — one that seeks to help the company focus on the features that need the most use.

Seeing as how this app has been pretty much on autopilot for a while, it’s not like it was sucking up much in the way of resources.

My guess is that Google™ saw it as an alternative to Google+™, they dumped some sharing features from the program a year ago, and this was a large part of the reason to axe the program.

They are terrified of Facebook, and so they push G+.

As an aside, one of the problems with Google+™ is that G+ still sucks.

For example, there is still no way to feed your blog RSS to G+, which you can do in Facebook, Twitter, and even lowly MySpace.  (If someone knows a work around, tell me)

And to go further down the “We Love Evil” path, Google has now banned ad blocking software from its Android Market, the Play Store:

Google has removed all ad blocking apps from Google Play, its online store for Android applications, on the basis that they interfere with other services. Searches for “adblock” and related terms on Wednesday evening no longer returned any references to ad blocking software.

Till Faida, co-founder of Adblock Plus, condemned the decision, calling it a threat to consumer choice. “By unilaterally removing these apps, Google is stepping all over the checks and balances that make the Internet democratic,” he said in a statement, suggesting that Google’s actions threaten Internet freedom in the same way that SOPA and PIPA did.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In its letter to Adblock Plus, Google said the software violates Section 4.4 of the company’s Developer Distribution Agreement.

Section 4.4 states, “You agree that you will not engage in any activity with the Market, including the development or distribution of Products, that interferes with, disrupts, damages, or accesses in an unauthorized manner the devices, servers, networks, or other properties or services of any third party including, but not limited to, Android users, Google or any mobile network operator.”

Evil. It’s what’s dinner.

On a related note, my guess is that Feedburner will be done away with in the near to medium term, so if you have an email subscription, you would need to change.

I’m looking at alternatives.

Tentacles of the Vampire Squid

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It was nice when the last remaining New England Republican, Christopher Shays, was defeated.

Unfortunately, he was by former Goldman Sachs executive Jim Himes, who is doing his level best to gut the most effective provisions of Dodd Frank: (See also here)

Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes said a provision in the Wall Street reform legislation aimed at limiting taxpayer exposure to risky elements of financial products sold by banks goes too far and must be changed.

 Himes, a Greenwich resident and member of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, joined with Republicans from North Carolina and Illinois and a fellow Democrat from New York to introduce the Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act this week that would amend the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. A similar bill has been brought forward in the Senate. An attempt to amend the provision last year failed.

 ………

 As part of the Dodd-Frank Act, banks with access to the Federal Reserve’s overnight lending program and insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would be required to set up independent subsidiaries in order to continue selling the financial instruments, called swaps.

 Underfunded swap positions among big banks and other financial institutions were a major reason for the 2008 financial disaster. Swap trades were not made on any exchanges and many of them were based on mortgages. Fearing bank failures of staggering proportions, Congress bailed out the largest institutions.

So, he’s trying to put tax payers on the hook for the gambles at the big casino yet again.

So, what does this mean? It means that the Democratic leadership will make him head of the DCCC finance committee for the 2014 elections:

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut will be the new national finance chairman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 2014 cycle, according to two well-placed Democratic sources on Capitol Hill.

 Officials announced the new position for Himes, a three-term Democrat from Connecticut, at a morning meeting for members.

Jeebus.  The Vampire Squid owns us all.

Simon Johnson was right when he said that the first step in recovery from the implosion of your finance system is to break grip on power of the elites who  f%$#ed us like a drunk sorority pledge.  (I’m paraphrasing)