Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Obama Buys a Clue (Finally!)

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We how have reports that in a private meeting with David Boehner, Obama said that the Republicans are not interested in doing the work of government:

At the private White House meeting today between Obama and Congressional leaders, the President and John Boehner got into a testy exchange, aides say, with Obama charging that the GOP is just out to kill all his initiatives.

…………

That apparently irked the President, aides say, who accused Boehner of just wanting to kill all his initiatives. Boehner shot back that this was false, that Republicans are serious about bipartisan cooperation.

Now that you know the truth, just f%$# them.

Bipartisanship only works if both sides are interesting in helping the country. The Republicans are not, so there is no benefit to reaching out to them, period, full stop.

Shelby Backs Down

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Remember when I wrote that Richard Shelby had placed holds on every single Obama nominee because he wanted his pork?

Well, he’s backed down, a little at least:

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) has released his controversial “holds” on more than 70 pending presidential nominations, his office said Monday night.

Note that his holds directed at anyone, or anything that might have to do with the USAF tanker RFP, remain in place though.

News of the Unsurprising

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It turns out that almost all money donated by HP employees and HP related PACs in the California Senate race is going to Barbara Boxer, not Carly Fiorina.

In fact, more HP money has gone to her GOP challengers, most notably Chuck Devore, than has gone to Carly.

When Carly Fiorina was fired by Hewlett Packard*, employees at every level, spontaneously burst into song.

The song? Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead!

The idea that HP employees, and HP tied political institutions, view her with anything but unbelievably well justified disgust is not news.

*Sorry, HP, one of her innovations was to drop the “Hewlett” and “Packard” after they stood up to her disastrous policies.

If On the Jury, I Would Vote to Acquit

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A group of German pensioners are on trial for abducting and imprisoning their investment adviser:

A retired architect and four other pensioners took their financial adviser hostage and held him in a purpose-built prison in Bavaria after their stock market investments failed, a court has heard.

The 74-year-old architect, identified only as Roland K, told a court in Traunstein, southern Germany, that he and his accomplices thought their financial adviser had “cheated and taken the piss” out of them after their investments in the US property market evaporated. As a result, he told the court, they had “decided to invite him for a few days’ holiday in Upper Bavaria”.

Roland K denied kidnapping but admitted the group, including his seventh wife, 79-year-old Sieglinde, Willi D, 60, and Iris F, 64, a retired doctor, abducted James Amburn at his home in Speyer, southern Germany, in June before transporting him in the boot of a car to Roland K’s house at the lakeside resort of Chiemsee, where he had built a prison for him in the cellar.

I don’t approve of such behavior, and I would not do so myself, but if these sorts of vigilante justice are nullified by juries on a regular basis, bankers will start looking to preserving their skins, and not their bonuses and tax dodges.

If they don’t get the message soon, we will see the people with guns shooting bank presidents.

I hope that the bankers get the message before we start seeing widespread murders.

I Know That They Are In the Faith Business………

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But the fact that the Church of England (i.e the Anglicans, called the Episcopal Church in the US) has invested 100% of its pension funds in equities (stocks) seems to me to be just a little bit risky:

The Church faces the same problems as all employers with DB pension schemes – improved longevity and lower real interest rates. But the Church’s pension problems are largely self-inflicted since, astonishingly, the scheme has an asset allocation of 100 per cent equities – the riskiest asset allocation of any UK pension scheme. To add insult to injury, it has (reluctantly) agreed to start moving to 70/30 equities/bonds, but not until 2017, and not to be completed until 2027.

(emphasis mine)

There is a good reason for interest rates to be up against the zero bound right now, but interest rates have been unreasonably low since GW Bush took office, as the result of a conscious decision by Alan Greenspan to bolster Republicans (politically independent Fed, my tuchas), and when this happens, people do insane things to get returns as a result.

The Iranians are Selling Someone the Brooklyn Bridge

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No, I am not talking about their nuclear program.

I am talking about their claim that they have flown a prototype stealth aircraft, or it may be a subscale drone demonstrator

The source is Fars News, and the aircraft is called the ‘Sofreh Mahi'(flatfish):

“The research model of this plane which staged a successful flight passed all radar-evading tests that we desired,” Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army Air Force General Aziz Nasirzadeh told FNA.

The General said that the flatfish-inspired shape of the aircraft as well as the materials used in its structure have provided the aircraft with the radar-evading capability.

Ummm….Flatfish? You are calling your aircraft a Flounder?!?!?!

I need a screen wipe.

Why We Love the Rude Pundit

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Nothing to see here, move along

Because he writes stuff like this:

See, Sarah Palin is graded on the hot chick curve. Men wanna f%$# her and women with low self-esteem wanna be her, so whatever she does just affirms that she is hot and f%$#able and gets to travel. If she looked like Kay Bailey Hutchison, we wouldn’t even be talking about her. Palin knows it. And she wields her sexuality like a distraction while she magically steals attention from those smarter than her.

It ain’t just Palin. Let’s face it: if Hillary Clinton had looked like Sarah Palin, she’d be president. And if Barack Obama had looked like Dennis Kucinich, he would not. But, Jesus, you could argue there was substance there. It’s a sad fact of America in the 21st-century that shallowness is a quality and depth makes you an out-of-touch elitist.

(%%# mine)

He cuts to the core of the issue here: that there are an awful lot of people in the United States who think that the manner of selecting our leaders should involve no more intellectual rigor than selecting Miss Alaska (and by the way, she lost that one too).

Really Bad Ideas: Dodge/Chrysler Edition

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No, this does not look macho!

I know that it’s kind of like shooting fish in a barrel, but the idea that Dodge will reinvigorate interest in it’s muscle cars with “Furious Fuchsia” special edition Chargers is just too stupid to ignore.

Fuchsia? Seriously?

What the hell were you thinking?

Seriously, real men don’t even know the world fuchsia.*

This is an aesthetic right up there with the AMC Pacer.

Sharon† looked at the picture, and said that she, “Wouldn’t be caught dead in it,” so the minivan driving mother segment doesn’t like it either.

*Full disclosure: I’m not a real man, even if I do detest quiche, and I can’t spell fuchsia.

†Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Hmmm…………Who Could it Be?

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Could it be ………… the Mossad?

Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh was one of the founders of Hamas’ Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and was believed to be a major conduit of weapons to Gaza.

On January 19, he was found dead in his hotel room, and authorities in Dubai are saying that he was done by a hit squad with “European passports”, and these people were already out of the country before the body was discovered.

Among other oddities: His bodyguard was not with him because the plane was full, which is kind of a “WTF” thing.

Additionally, the cause of death is unclear, with reports, according to the Wiki, of suffocation, electrocution (unlikely, it’s a stupid way to off someone), and, “a heart-attack inducing drug”.

What is interesting (quoting the Wiki) is just how much Hamas is not on the same page about this:

Hamas officials made diverse and conflicting statements regarding the circumstances of their leader’s death. On the day of the incident, Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced that he died of terminal cancer in a hospital in the United Arab Emirates.

On 29 January, top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said that it was possible that members of the entourage of Israeli infrastructure minister Uzi Landau were involved in Mabhuh’s death. Landau was visiting the United Arab Emirates at the time for a renewable energy conference. Landau dismissed the claim, stating that his delegation was in Abu Dhabi, some 120 km from Dubai, and was escorted by 8-man UAE security team at all times.

Also on 29 January, Hamas’ deputy politburo chief Moussa Abu Marzouk said, “Mossad agents are those who assassinated al-Mabhouh”.

On 2 February, Hamas representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan said that Palestinian Authority security forces might have been involved in the death. He stated that “The Palestinian Authority security forces are pursuing [our] fighters and they have killed dozens of them since 1994.” The same day, Haaretz reported that a Hamas investigation suggested Mabhuh was assassinated by agents of an Arab government, and that al-Mabhouh was wanted by Egypt and Jordan.

Seeing as how his “day job” was running a textile firm, I see only four possibilities, the Mossad, some sort of internecine warfare amongst members of Hamas, some sort of natural death while in a sexually compromised position (which would explain the absence of body guards as well as the confusion from Hamas), or the textile industry in Syria is more cut-throat than I previously understood.

My money is on the Mossad.

That whole “silk merchant gone bad” thing ……… not so much.

Matt Taibbi Nails it Again

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He discusses the fact that John Thain, the man who spent over a million dollars rehabbing his office at Merrill Lynch while conspiring to conceal losses from Bank of America shareholders has now been appointed CEO of troubled business lender CIT.

Matt Taibbi asks the question that this raises, “Man, exactly what do you have to do to become unhirable in this country? Eat Christian babies on CNN?“

It’s true. As Mr. Taibbi notes, the “Genius” behind the LTCM fiasco is still getting to make his money playing with other people’s money.

This is all about corruption and nepotism.

Economics Update

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Normally, I don’t talk stock prices, particularly the Dow, which is an arbitrary and not particularly accurate metric of the stock market, but the fact that the DJIA closed below 10,000 today has a significant effect on the thinking of the markets, or at least on the thinking of the financial journalists.

On the other hand we do have some good signs, most notably that the interest rate premoum on junk bonds appears to be falling, which generally implies that financing is becoming more available.

Additionally, it appears that some sort of deal is in the offing with the EU to bail out Greece, which has driven voth the Yen and the dollar lower, because investors are not looking so hard for safe havens.

As is the norm, the falling dollar has driven oil higher.

A Good Start

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Click for full size

H/t War is Boring

How do you know if a government policy is disastrous?

Well, there are any number of indicators, but the one that has a 100% record on predicting f%$#ed up policy is if it’s Dick Cheney’s idea.

Well, one of his ideas, back when he was Secretary of Defense was that “non core” military functions, like cargo transport, feeding the troops, and maintenance, should be outsourced to the private sector.

We all know how well that works. It’s so bad that even the US Air Force, the poster child for letting contractors run wild, is bringing its sustainment activities in house: (paid subscription required)

The U.S. Air Force is beginning to reclaim government management over upkeep of its large fighter, transport and, eventually, unmanned aircraft fleets, a move that could stunt efforts from companies looking to reap high profits from the maintenance business.

The Air Force is moving away from the contractor logistics support arrangements , popular in the 1990s, in which the government paid a premium for industry to handle product support duties, including oversight of touch labor and supply-chain management. During this post-Cold War period, the Pentagon downsized the workforce equipped with these skills in hopes that industry could oversee these tasks at lower costs and more efficiently. However, under Defense Secretary Robert Gates, this trend is reversing, and the government is now insourcing jobs in acquisition and sustainment; top Air Force officials say they expect savings.

If the policy has proved to be a disaster of such epic proportions that even the boyz from Colorado Springs* have decided that the possibility of plush jobs after they retire as generals cannot excuse it, then you just know that Cheney was part of the original decision.

Of course, the private contractors maintain that they will be cheaper (they aren’t), and that the government will find it tough to attract talent (Nope, once you take this in house, you get the people who previously worked for the government, then went to work for LockMartBoeinThrup, but have now been laid off), but mostly, they are screaming that they want their money.

Sorry, but you had your chance, and you f%$#ed it up. You’re fired.

*I mean the USAF, not Focus on the Family, though sometimes it is hard to tell them apart.

Big Surprise

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Former Liberian President, and mass murderer, Charles Taylor is saying that he did mining deals with Pat Robertson in exchange for his lobbying Bush and His Evil Minions™ for support:

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor, testifying in his war crimes trial in The Hague on Thursday, said that his government had awarded American televangelist Pat Robertson a gold mining concession in 1999 and that Robertson later offered to lobby the Bush administration on the government’s behalf.

The revelations came in the midst of Taylor’s U.N.-backed trial on 11 counts of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone’s 1990s civil war. Taylor is accused of directing a Sierra Leonean rebel group, the United Revolutionary Front, in a campaign aimed at securing access to the country’s diamond mines. The rebel movement stands accused of committing mass atrocities in the West African country in the late 1990s, including the mutilation of thousands of civilians.

Here’s hoping that the war crimes tribunal comes after Pat Robertson, whose association with Taylor has been common knowledge for at least a decade.

Of course, Robertson will never see the inside of a court room, because the United States won’t turn over anyone for war crimes, because we’re big enough not to play by the rules, so all that we will hear from him on this is his spokesman’s denial.

Our Financial Crisis, Brought to You by the WTO

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There are a lot of people out there who think that free trade will always do all kinds of good things: It creates peace, it creates democracy, it keeps your daughter from dating the guy with the tattoos and piercings.

I’m not one of these people.

First, I think that we have yet to see an economy becoming a developed economy with a large middle class in a free trade environment, and second, I think that a bad free trade deal is worse than no, or a more limited, free trade deal.

Well it appears that on March 1, 1999, the United States signed onto a free trade deal that mandated the sort of reckless deregulation that has nearly destroyed out economy:

But the U.S. is not being sold out in a vacuum.

On March 1, 1999, countries accounting for more than 90 per cent of the global financial services market signed onto the World Trade Organization’s Financial Services Agreement (FSA). By signing the FSA, they committed to deregulate their financial markets.

For example, by signing the FSA, the U.S. agreed not to break up too big to fails. The U.S. also promised to repeal Glass-Steagall, and did so 8 months after signing the FSA.

Indeed, in signing the FSA and other WTO agreements, the U.S. has legally bound itself as follows:

  • No new regulation: The United States agreed to a “standstill provision” that requires that we not create new regulations (or reverse liberalization) for the list of financial services bound to comply with WTO rules. Given that the United States has made broad WTO financial services commitments – and thus is forbidden by this provision from imposing new regulations in these many areas – this provision seriously limits the policy [options] available to address the current crisis.
  • Removal of regulation: The United States even agreed to try to even eliminate domestic financial service regulatory policies that meet GATS [i.e. General Agreement on Trade in Services] rules, but that may still “adversely affect the ability of financial service suppliers of any other (WTO) Member to operate, compete, or enter” the market.
  • No bans on new financial service “products”: The United States is also bound to ensure that foreign financial service suppliers are permitted “to offer in its territory any new financial service,” a direct conflict with the various proposals to limit various risky investment instruments, such as certain types of derivatives.
  • Certain forms of regulation banned outright: The United States agreed that it would not set limits on the size, corporate form or other characteristics of foreign firms in the broad array of financial services it signed up to WTO strictures …
  • Treating foreign and domestic firms alike is not sufficient: The GATS market-access limits on U.S. domestic regulation apply in absolute terms; that is to say, even if a policy applies to domestic and foreign firms alike, if it goes beyond what WTO rules permit, it is forbidden. And, forms of regulation not outright banned by the market-access requirements must not inadvertently “modify the conditions of competition in favor of services or service suppliers” of the United States, even if they apply identically to foreign and domestic firms.

In other words, the problem isn’t just that Congress and the White House have sold out to the Wall Street giants.

The problem is also that the U.S. has signed WTO agreements that have given the keys to the too big to fails, and have neutered their regulators. Even if some politicians tried to stand up to Wall Street – or even if we “throw out all of the bums” currently in political roles – the U.S. would still be locked into the WTO’s scheme for helping the financial giants to grow ever bigger and to take ever-bigger and ever-riskier gambles.

Yet another reason to oppose the so-called “Doha” round, which promises to deregulate financial services even further.

What has gone on at the WTO is that it has been functioned as a prostitute for elements in our economy which do not produce tangible goods, finance, insurance, entertainment, patent holders, etc. at the expense of absolutely everything else in the economy.

It’s killing us.