And yes, it is a bar sign in Austin, so whether or not this sign is quintessentially Texan, or is quintessentially Austin, is up for debate.
Category: environment
One Very Big Plus to the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill
It appears that the legislation, which creates a Co2 cap and trade regime, also bans naked credit default swaps, and could be construed as banning all credit default swaps:
Here’s the key passage from Waxman-Markey, buried on page 1,070 of the 1,428-page bill introduced in the Senate on July 6:
“It shall be unlawful for any person to enter into a credit default swap unless the person:
1) owns a credit instrument which is insured by the credit default swap;
2) would experience financial loss if an event that is the subject of the credit default swap occurs with respect to the credit instrument; and
3) meets . . . minimum capital adequacy standards…”
Basically, a credit default swap is an insurance policy on a financial instrument, and a naked swap is an insurance on a policy in which one has no interest in its continued existence.
This section of the bill is clearly intended to ban naked swaps, but some people are arguing that the specific language of the bill actually bans all CDS, because the person selling the swap does not have own, “a credit instrument which is insured by the credit default swap,” but by selling the insurance they are “entering into” the CDS.
My guess is that the courts will not view this as a ban on all CDS instruments, and if Waxman-Markey bans nakes swaps, this is enough to justify support the bill on its own, as weak as it is.
By background, in insurance, it’s forbidden to, for example, take out insurance on things like your neighbor’s home, and has been for some time:
In 1746, Parliament passed the Marine Insurance Act, requiring anyone seeking to collect on an insurance contract to have an interest in the continued existence of the insured property. Thus was born the insured-interest doctrine. The indemnity doctrine, which precludes a buyer from insuring property for more than it’s worth, soon followed. The point of these rules is to limit insurance contracts to trading existing risks and not to create new risks by giving buyers of insurance incentive to destroy property. The doctrines have been part of insurance law in both England and the United States (which in 1746 were colonies under English common law) ever since.
Unfortunately, in the Greenspan/Rubin/Summers America, it was decided that this 263 year old lesson could be ignored, and so we have trillions of dollars in casino bets masquerading as insurance, but isn’t insurance, because then the contracts for naked swaps would be unenforceable as insurance policies.
H/t Kevin Drum
Sushi Without Guilt
Australian company Clean Seas Tuna Ltd. has succeeded in breeding bluefin tuna in captivity.
The bluefin, which is prized as the finest sushi fish in the world, individual fish can sell in Tokyo for $20,000.00, is very threatened by the demand, and the idea that one could harvest farm-raised tuna, and allow leave the wild stocks alone, is an encouraging development.
Latest Phony GOP SH%$ Storm
They are claiming that the EPA is suppressing climate warming skeptical reports from one of their employees, Al Carlin.
There are, however, a few problems:
- He’s an economist not a scientist.
- He was never asked the reports, this is a hobby that he does on the side, and then he writes memos about them.
- The report has been by a NASA climatologist as, “a ragbag collection of un-peer reviewed web pages, an unhealthy dose of sunstroke, a dash of astrology and more cherries than you can poke a cocktail stick at.”
- He’s never been a part of the climate change working group.
So basically, he’s the nutcase you ignore on an email listserv.
Who Obama Is On “Free Trade”
Cap and trade barely passes the house, and Barack Obama is wringing his hands about how the tariff against nations with weaker measures, “At a time when the economy world-wide is still deep in recession, and we’ve seen a significant drop in global trade, I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out there.”
Barack Obama is a smart guy. He knows that there are similar tariffs in countries that have a VAT, so that you cannot evade the tax by outsourcing production, and he knows that the economic consensus is that the absence of such measures distort free trade by subsidizing foreign manufacture of goods.
He also has to know that the WTO just signed off on these tariffs as legal, so long as they are not, “a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade”.”
He expresses these “concerns” because he believes that any restriction on the flow of goods and services,* is dangerous and bad.
He is a free market mousketeer™ who believes that free trade will, inexorably spread democracy throughout the world, raise everyone’s standard of living, keep ants away from your picnic, and keep your daughter from dating the guy with the tattoos and piercings.
Do not expect meaningful labor or environmental measures as a part of his free trade deals. They won’t happen.
*Except for IP, where excessive US copyright and patent restrictions must be adopted world wide.
WTO Says Environmental Tarriffs Legal
Much in the same way that they allow for the VAT to be charged at the border, a tariff to reflect the cost of carbon regulations would be legal:
Countries implementing cap-and-trade systems for greenhouse gases may be able to use border taxes to protect domestic industries, after the World Trade Organisation gave a cautious nod to such measures.
It’s basic common sense, though they do note that it cannot be, “a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade”.
Yes
Rachel Morris of Mother Jones asks, “Could Cap and Trade Cause Another Market Meltdown?”
This has been another episode of Simple Answers to Simple Questions.
Your Liberal Media
You may have heard a minor media sh%$storm about an OMB report that says that global warming is a farce, and that it will wreck the economy.
Only the report is not a report, it’s just a collection of various opinions from other agencies that the OMB passes on without comment, and it’s just one comment.
And the comment, it came from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, an office whose only job is to lobby for small businesses, and which has no professional staff, only political appointees.
In this case, the political appointee in question was Joseph Johnson, a former member of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which is another right wing funded front. See also here if you can stomach a Glen Beck video.
Needless to say, this did not prevent the New York Times from mindlessly echoing all the spin (also here), along with the rest of usual suspects.
Of course, it took a bunch of couple DFH* bloggers at The Atlantic and Media Matters about a half day to get to the bottom of this, but our main stream media?
Not so much.
*Dirty F%$#ing Hippy.
EU Finally Starts to Get it Right on Somolia
They hafve set up a commission to investigate European illegal fishing off Somalia, which is a good thing, since the pirates started out as fishemen who are being starved by the depletion of their waters by illegal fishing.
It should have happened 5 years ago.
Elections Make a Difference
Case in point, the EPA has not declared greenhouse gasses a threat to public health, opening the door for regulation of these gasses.
What’s more, it puts a pin in the Congress to put something in legislation, because the EPA can institute regulations that are far more expansive, without the opportunity for bribery campaign contributions.
While I am regularly (OK, constantly) criticizing the Obama administration for their mishandling of the banking crisis and the banking system and their avoidance of any real investigation of crimes against humanity and corruption by Bush and His Evil Minions&trade, this is real change, and beneficial.
We will now be returning to the regularly scheduled broadcast.
Remember When I Said that Cap and Trade Sucks
Well, it looks like the Europeans are wising up to the China option of creating false offsets for greenhouse gasses:
The European Union, frustrated that its 11,000 factories and power plants are failing to adequately reduce greenhouse-gas pollution, will seek tighter emission rules that may raise the price of burning fossil fuels.
The 27-nation bloc wants to curb access to a program run by the United Nations that rewards companies more for funding emission-reduction projects in China and India than for decreasing their own gas output in Europe. New limits are needed to force extra pollution cuts at home, the EU said in proposals for climate talks starting in two days in Bonn.
My original post on the subject.
Why Cap and Trade Sucks
Because if there is a sign that a regulatory strategy is ill conceived, it is when you end up paying farmers not to grow crops, and this appears to be one of the new cash crops for the American farmers.
This is a fraud foisted on the American consumer and the environment, much like the construction of unneeded hydroelectric plants in China for carbon credits on the European cap and trade system is a fraud on the European consumer and the environment.
The solution, which is cheaper for the consumer, and keeps the Wall Street types from gaming the system, is the straight carbon tax.
Why Carbon Cap and Trade is a Fraud
I’ve always said that it is rife in opportunities for gaming the system and abuse.
We now can say that the system has already been gamed and abused:
China dams reveal flaws in climate-change weapon
By JOE McDONALD and CHARLES J. HANLEY – 1 day ago
XIAOXI, China (AP) — The hydroelectric dam, a low wall of concrete slicing across an old farming valley, is supposed to help a power company in distant Germany contribute to saving the climate — while putting lucrative “carbon credits” into the pockets of Chinese developers.
But in the end the new Xiaoxi dam may do nothing to lower global-warming emissions as advertised. And many of the 7,500 people displaced by the project still seethe over losing their homes and farmland.
…..
This is not a but, it’s a feature. If you want Wall Street and its worldwide siblings to run this shell game, this is what is called “value added”.
This is why a carbon tax is the way to go.
Antarctica is warming, not cooling: study | Environment | Reuters
Another nail in climate change denier’s coffin, it turns out that Antarctica is warming, not cooling.
Well, Here is a Story that I Missed
Enterprising young environmental protester Tim DeChristopher was at a demonstration against hurried auctions of government land next to some of the crown jewels of the National Park system by Bush and His Evil Minions&trade, when an idea hit him: go into the auction, and bid against the people getting the sweetheart deals, and drive the prices up.
He had no money, but he did drive the prices up, and DeChristopher, the now infamous “Bidder 70”, actually won a fair portion of the bids before authorities realized what was up, and they threw him out.
Well, he has been collecting donations online, and he now has the requisite $45,000.00 to make the first payment on the 13 leases that he won, which accounted for roughly 15% of the total acreage that was sold at auction.
He still needs to pay a total of $1.7 million, but it’s a start.
You can donate to him here.
Obama Staffing Update
Senator Ken Salazar as Secretary of Interior, he will be replaced by an appointment from a Democratic governor….Hopefully someone a bit less conservadem than Salazar.
Also Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. I don’t know much about him except that he’s likely to be the best hoops player on the cabinet, he play professionally in Australia.
A Good Consequence of the Lehman Failure
It appears that they are shuttering their carbon trading desk.
Anything that kicks carbon trading in the teeth is a good thing. It is bad, incredibly bad, policy.
The stated idea is, “Let’s let Wall Street apply the same practices ant techniques to a world threatening problem, the innovation unleashed will solve that problem.“
The real goal is, “If we create a market mechanism for this sh#@, then I can pull down major fees as an expert in this sh#@, my Ivy League classmates can get commissions whenever someone sells this sh#@, we can get more commissions whenever we repackage these things as sh#@ backed obligations, and I can get a Porsche.“
Market based solutions: Because baby needs a Porsche.
The Trouble With Hannah
I’ve got a lot of hatches to batten down, even as far inland as the Baltimore area.
Farmer’s Almanac Predicts Cold Winter
If true, this will be bad news when juxtaposed to skyrocketing heating costs, particularly for those in the Northeast who rely on heating oil.
Bush Administration Gets Slapped Down in Court….Again
This all seems to have happened in the past 6 months or so. I’m wondering if the judiciary has just gotten sick of them, or if lame duck syndrome changes the thinking of judges.
In this case, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided that the Bush EPA was full of it when they tried to prevent state and local governments from monitoring power plant pollution.
Seriously, it seems that the courts are finally getting around to reversing blatantly illegal crap that has been going on for years…Do the wheels of justice just grind this slow, or some members of the Judiciary realizing that this is not a boat that they want to hitch their anchor to?