Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Greek Journalist Acquitted

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Costas Vaxevanis, who was persecuted prosecuted for publishing a list of Greeks with large Swiss bank accounts, has been acquitted:

A Greek journalist who published the names of more than 2,000 of his compatriots who held Swiss bank accounts was acquitted on Thursday in a case that touched a nerve over the role of tax evasion in the country’s debt crisis.

The trial of Costas Vaxevanis, editor of the weekly Hot Doc magazine, had aroused international concern and intense interest among Greeks hit by the impact of the country’s economic collapse and angry at the privileges of the elite.

He could have faced up to two year years in prison on charges of violating data privacy laws that Vaxevanis said were politically motivated and the result of politicians protecting an “untouchable” wealthy class.

His speedy arrest and trial following publication of the “Lagarde List” at the weekend – so named for Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund – touched a nerve in near-bankrupt Greece, where rampant tax evasion is undermining a struggle to cut public costs and raise revenue under an EU/IMF bailout deal.

It also enraged many who are already furious over the failure of consecutive governments to crack down on the rich while years of recession have wiped out a fifth of economic output and hammered middle-class living standards.

As the old saying goes, “A fish rots from the head.”

Former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson notes, in situations like this, the first priority really has to be breaking the grip of the corrupt elites has over society and over the economy.

That is not going to happen, because the Greek leadership is incapable of doing this, and the corrupt elites in the rest of the EU do not want someone telling regulators where the bodied are buried.

Krugman is On Fire

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His referring to the Republican Party as The Blackmail Caucus is prize:

But are we ready to become a country in which “Nice country you got here. Shame if something were to happen to it” becomes a winning political argument? I hope not. By all means, vote for Mr. Romney if you think he offers the better policies. But arguing for Mr. Romney on the grounds that he could get things done veers dangerously close to accepting protection-racket politics, which have no place in American life.

I prefer to think of them as hostage-taking terrorists, but Krugman is eloquent and to the point.

Go Read.

It’s Bank Failure Friday!!!

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It’s been a pretty busy week.

First, the FDIC insured institutions. Here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.

  1. Heritage Bank of Florida, Lutz, FL
  2. Citizens First National Bank, Princeton, IL

Full FDIC list

Also, we had 3 credit union closings:

  1. ​U.S. Central Bridge Corporate Federal Credit Union, Lexana, KS
  2. El Paso Federal Credit Union, El Paso, TX
  3. Women’s Southwest Federal Credit Union, Dallas, TX

Note that the U.S. Central Bridge Corporate Federal Credit Union is a corporate credit union, which means that they are a credit union for the consumer credit unions, which serve the public, and provide services like account clearing and liquidity, so it’s kind of a big deal.

Full NCUA list

So, here is the graph pr0n with last years numbers for comparison (FDIC only):

2¾ Hours………

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I did early voting today. The line was huge.

I, or more accurately my evil minion/cameraman/son Charlie, shot a video until my phone ran out of juice.

I will put this on the most boring Youtube Channel ever™ as soon as I finish editing it.

I wrote in Jon Stewart. (I am so glad that I live in Maryland)

Just in Time Inventory Gives Unions a Tool

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It appears that someone in the labor union movement has realized that with modern lean inventories, labor unions have another lever to use against recalcitrant management:

The recent Walmart strikes — beginning first among warehouse workers in California, then spreading to others in Elwood, Illinois, and finally to Walmart retail stores across the United States — raise the possibility that workers may be able to crack the anti-union wall at the country’s largest employer. The new momentum seems likely to spread among many more workplaces to come. But these wildcat strikes are a reminder that, if American workers are to have a better-organized future, they will have to better understand where their corporate opponents are vulnerable.

The Walmart strikes are part of a significant reevaluation of organizing strategy by labor unions and activists in the context of the continuing decline of unionism in the United States — where fewer than 7 percent of workers in the private sector belong to a union. As Nadine Bloch pointed out two weeks ago, such wildcat strikes on multiple levels of the supply chain at Walmart are unprecedented, and groups like OUR Walmart and Warehouse Workers for Justice are planning to escalate the campaign in the coming weeks.

………

Workers at key points in the supply chain can create massive disruptions in the process. A report conducted in 2002 found that a West Coast longshoremen lockout cost the U.S. economy $2 billion daily. And, in the recent strike of just two dozen subcontracted Walmart warehouse workers in Elwood, Illinois, the strikers heard reports from allies at Walmart retail stores in the region that there were already shortages of goods. This occurred less than 10 days into the strike, Elwood warehouse worker Mike Compton told me.

By focusing on key links in the supply chain, and by using a strike at the beginning of an organizing campaign instead of at the end, Walmart workers are not only taking advantage of the company’s 21st-century weaknesses. They’re also harkening back to an earlier form of union organization, which was far more common prior to the passage of the Wagner Act of 1935.

I’m not sure if I’m heartened, or alarmed that the union movement has to go back to the tactics of the early 1930s.

It’s Jobless Thursday!!!

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Initial jobless claims fell by 9K, and the 4-week moving average fell slightly too, though continuing claims and extended claims rose. (Half good, half “meh”)

Just be glad that we are not in the Euro zone, where the Euro zone unemployment rate hit a record high.

 In other news, consumer confidence hit a 5 year high, and the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index rose to a 5 month high.

Of course, the big news will the the NFP numbers that drop at 8:30am EDT tomorrow.

Tucker Carlson, Your Kung Fu is Weak

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Yes, Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller has announced what must be the least poorly sourced and lamest sex “scandal” of this election season (No direct link to his clown show, ever):

Tucker Carlson’s website The Daily Caller is taking a shot at the October Surprise game, accusing New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez of soliciting prostitutes while on a trip to the Dominican Republic. According to videotaped interviews with two anonymous women published on the website last night, Menendez agreed to pay the women $500 for sex during a visit to the country earlier this year. They identified the Senator from a picture, but said they were only given $100 after being brought to see him at a fancy resort on the island. A spokesperson for Menendez, who is up for re-election on Tuesday, calls the story “completely false.”

Why is this lame? Or, more accurately why is this lame for reasons onther than being “broken” by the Daily Caller?

How about this:

There are also a few other factors working against them in this story, like the fact that Menendez is not married (so there’s no infidelity angle), prostitution is technically legal in the Dominican Republic, and the solid Democratic state that he serves is a little distracted by other matters right now. However, Menendez was one of the Senators who called on Secret Service agents that reportedly hired prostitutes in Colombia to be fired.

So, in the worst case, he did not cheat on his wife, and he did not break the law.

What’s more, beyond the complaints of the two women, the Daily Caller did not even present evidence that Menendex was in the Dominican Republic at the time alleged.

Seriously, lame.

And This is Why Targeted Wildcat Strikes are Necessary

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Because just about every official institution at every level is virulently anti-union. Case in point, the World Bank:

The World Bank has taken the extremely dubious science of deregulation one step further by creating a guide, known as the Doing Business report, that quantifies the regulatory “burden” that investors may face in various countries. The 2013 report was released this week.

Echoing the corporate “job creator” mythology of the Washington consensus, Doing Business encourages financiers and governments to erode public-interest protections, including safeguards for unions and workers. Labor groups say the publication’s warped views on regulation and worker protections effectively gives a statistical justification for leveraging economic aid or investment to pressure countries to privatize, deregulate and undermine unions.

Labor advocates are particularly critical of the section of the report that crystallizes these views, the “Employing Workers Indicator” (EWI) which purports to measure labor policy “as it affects the hiring and redundancy of workers and the rigidity of working hours.” Despite the World Bank’s past assurances that its analysis of labor regulations won’t factor into the main rankings on business friendliness, critics fear that these data nonetheless filter into the report’s evaluations, and in turn imply labor laws essentially impede development.

This is not just the “technocrats” who have this opinion. It’s the overwhelming majority on the so-called “center-left”.

Whenever you hear a Democrat talking about “training” so that workers are ready for “the new economy”, they are saying that they think that labor unions are an anachronism, and they won’t do anything to support them.

We need a real Labo(u)r party in the United States, because the political establishment is hostile to unions.

Remember That ‘Phant Mantra of Relying on Private Charities………

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Well, not so much:

Looking to cut down on homeless services in Costa Mesa, [Republican] Mayor Eric Bever has asked the city to investigate some of the city’s most prominent and long-running charities.

 Bever singled out Share Our Selves and Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, two decades-old nonprofits that dispense food and medical care to the poor and homeless.

 The mayor compared the charities to nightclubs that have become neighborhood nuisances.

 It would go a long way to solving the problem of homeless people coming to Costa Mesa, the mayor said, “if we managed to put the soup kitchen out of business.”

 The homeless population in Costa Mesa has been a stubborn political issue over the years, with some residents complaining that vagrants take over public facilities like Lions Park and the library in the heart of the city’s downtown.

 But the assertion that the soup kitchen and outreach center are magnets strictly to homeless people is off base, said Shannon Santos, the executive director of Someone Cares.

 Santos said a survey the soup kitchen conducted in 2011 found that 86% of its patrons said they were from Costa Mesa, and about 40% were low-income seniors, many from the nearby Bethel Towers apartments, which serves seniors with modest incomes

BTW, this joker is (thankfully) being termed out of office, and he’s running for a seat on the water board so that he can keep his health insurance for his bad back:

Eric Bever is termed out and running for a seat on the Mesa Consolidated Water Board. He is running against the current incumbent President Fred Bockmiller. Bockmiller is the Facilities director at UCI and has overseen water and drainage projects that have resulted in billions of infrastructure upgrades. His knowledge and experience are unparalleled. Insiders from the Costa Mesa political machine have basically made a stand to have Bever take the place of Bockmiller on the Water board. Bever is an antique dealer. The reason stated in whispers is that Eric NEEDS the medical for a bad back and if he is termed out he will lose his medical insurance. The justification is that Bockmiller can get insurance through the College so he is expendable. Ironic, isn’t? The Mayor is running for another elected position for the government provided health insurance but before he leaves he attacks charities that provide health insurance for those that need it. Costa Mesa needs to drain this swamp…….

Seriously, C=MI.*

I am sure that there are some Republican politicians who aren’t sociopaths, I just haven’t seen them yet.

*Conservatism equals Mental Illness.

Pass the Popcorn

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A court has ruled that the Montgomery County (PA) Recorder of Deeds can sue MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) and the banks over their evading recording fees:

The federal court has upheld the Montgomery County Recorder of Deeds’ right to sue an electronic mortgage registry company and banks doing business with that company for $15.7 million that she claims is owed to the county in recording fees.

 The court Friday issued a 36-page memorandum and order denying a motion by MERS, also known as Mortgage Electronic Registry System, and its participating banks to dismiss the lawsuit filed last year by Recorder of Deeds Nancy J. Becker.

 The court’s ruling, while not discussing the merits of the case, essentially states that Pennsylvania does have a law requiring that mortgage assignments be recorded with the recorder of deeds office and that the recorder of deeds has the right to bring legal action when he or she does not believe an entity is complying with the law.

 “This is one major hurdle that we have now leaped,” Becker said Monday. “Now, we can move forward on the issues.”

………

 Some 146,715 MERS mortgages have been recorded in her office from April 2004 through September 2011, according to Becker.

146,715 mortgages?  In one county?

Well Montgomery County has about 800K people, or about ¼% of the US population.

If you assume a lower number of multi-family residences, and double it, you have something in the neighborhood of 30 million mortgages, and fee evasion on the order of $3 billion.

With penalties, it might be north of $10 billion, and when you consider the potential liabilities that the banksters might have incurred because MERS did not work, and does not provide an accurate (or for that matter legal) record of who holds the note on the loan:

Becker has said that, when these mortgage loans are transferred electronically, sometimes multiple times, through MERS and not filed in the county recorder of deeds office, “it makes it difficult, almost impossible sometimes” for property owners to determine what institutions are holding their mortgages.

I would be very surprised if the liabilities incurred by this are not hundreds, if not thousands, of times more.

Now I Know How HP Employees Felt When Fiorina was Fired

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Because George Lucas has sold LucasFilm and the Star Wars Franchise, meaning that he will no longer be able f%$# it up. (Ewoks, and the Star Wars Holiday Special, Jar Jar Binks, and midi-chlorians, anyone?)

Unfortunately, I also feel how HP employees felt when Meg F%$#ing Whitman was hired as CEO:

In the rare bit of news that could blow Hurricane Sandy off the map, Disney announced today that it had purchased Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion—and announced that the company will debut Star War Episode VII in 2015. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers,” George Lucas said in the official announcement of the transaction, in what is a substantial understatement, given the creative quality of the prequels. “I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.”

Disney?  The f%$#ing mouse?

He f%$#ing sold f%$#ing Star Wars to the f%$#ing mouse?

Grrr………