Category: Government

What 10 Years of Conservatives Getting What They Wanted Got Us

No Comments
Click for full size

Note that private employment rolls actually fell


And in handy bar graph form

The Washington Post correctly called the “Aughts” a lost decade, inflation adjusted median income fell (for the first time on record), non-farm payroll experienced no growth (for the first time on record), household wealth fell (for the first time on record), GDP rose by the lowest number since at least the Great Depression.

The same goes for the stock market, only in this case, the records go back 200 years.

We have had a grand experiment of embracing conservative philosophy, with a highly right wing executive and a compliant legislative branch, since 2001 and the result has been miserable failure.

The past decade may not be as bad as the Great Depression, but it beats anything else in the 20th or 21st century, and it is not over yet.

Elections Have Consequences: Aerial Cattle Car Edition

No Comments

The Transportation Department has now forbidden airlines from keeping passengers on a plane for more than 3 hours while it waits on the tarmac.

This is a long overdue change.

And yes, I realize that there appears to be some dissonance from my prior post, lambasting Obama and His Stupid Minions™ on cutting another taxpayer funded giveaway to AIG fat cats.

The thing is, Obama is not every special interest’s bitch, just the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) sector.

Airlines are not part of FIRE, so they don’t get a pass.

Fail

No Comments

Remember yesterday, when I wrote about the contemptible tax-giveaway that Obama’s Treasury department engineered for Citi?

Basically, it involved allowing Citi to carry forward losses after a change in ownership when Obama’s Treasury department sells out the US stake.

Well, not so fast. It turns out that, not withstanding all manner of subsidies and payoffs to Bob Rubin’s old firm, people still think that the company is crap, and are not willing to pay much for the stock, so in order to Treasury Secretary Tim “Eddie Haskell” Geithner to sell the US government’s stock now, they would have to take a big loss, which would clearly demonstrate that Timmeh grossly overpaid for the stock when they swapped preferred shares for common stock a few months ago:

Two days after Mr. Pandit trumpeted news that Citigroup would start untangling itself from the federal government, his bank stumbled — this time, on Wall Street. Badly misreading the financial markets, the company struggled on Wednesday to raise the money it needed to repay its bailout funds.

While Citigroup managed to raise $20.5 billion in the stock market and will forge ahead with the repayment, the sale went so poorly that anxious Treasury officials reversed course and delayed their plans to start unwinding the government’s stake in the company immediately, according to people briefed on the matter.

……………

After the close of trading in New York, Citigroup priced its new shares at $3.15 each, below the $3.25 price at which the government assumed its one-third stake in the company. Before the sale, the share price of Citigroup fell 11 cents to $3.45, as investors braced for the new stock.

Rather than suffer a loss for taxpayers, the Treasury Department will now hold on to the $5 billion stake it planned to sell alongside Citigroup’s own $17 billion stock offering. After an initial 90-day delay, the government will try to sell its entire stake — about 7.7 billion shares — over the next six to 12 months.

What this means is that anyone with a pulse………Well, anyone with a pulse whose tongue is not so far up Wall Street’s ass that they taste tonsils (see Geithner, Timothy and Obama, Barack), realizes that Citi is a mess and they won’t pay what the government paid for it.

Wanker of the Day

No Comments

Tim Fernholz.

He goes goes after Matt Taibbi on his latest article, which I called a jem, and Taibbi responds, basically blowing him out of the water, and acknowledging one minor error, confusing diplomat James Rubin, and Robert Rubin’s son Jamie Rubin, though only by calling the latter a diplomat, Jamie Rubin’s role in assembling the Obama financial team is correctly depicted.

If you want the short version, I would suggest that you review Felix Salmon’s take on this tête-à-tête, and Salmon’s take is the same as Taibbi’s: that Fernholz’s criticisms are largely conjured out of hysteria:

In other words, it’s worth cross-checking everything that Fernholz says against what Taibbi actually writes, because often Taibbi simply doesn’t say what Fernholz implies that he says.

All the schadenfreude over Fernholz’s attack on Taibbi is particularly weird since they seem to actually agree with each other. Here’s how Fernholz concludes….

….

This is quite astonishing. Fernholz is basically saying that Taibbi is right, and that not only is he right but that he will now and henceforth utterly overshadow anyone else who’s criticizing the Obama administration from the left. At the same time, however, despite Taibbi’s astonishing ability to encapsulate and personify the entire group of people who criticize the administration, he’s not even going to manage to “make a dent”, because he’s not going about his job in an evenhanded J-school manner.

Major wankerdom.

Matt Taibbi is clearly polemical writer, but he gets his facts right, and he does describe the truly sad state of affairs that is the Rubin/Summers/Geithner economic axis upon which the Obama administration spins.

Well Damn, This Takes Chutzpah*

No Comments
Click for full size


Damn! I need this image on speed dial!

TPM reads Esquire’s interview with Alberto “Abu” Gonzalez, and finds this plum:

We should have abandoned the idea of removing the U. S. attorneys once the Democrats took the Senate. Because at that point we could really not count on Republicans to cut off investigations or help us at all with investigations. We didn’t see that at the Department of Justice. Nor did the White House see that. Karl didn’t see it. If we could do something over again, that would be it.

So, the only problem with politically purging the US Attorney corps, in order to drive corrupt and politically motivated prosecutions, was that Democrats were in power, and they would not, like the republicans had when they were in power, refuse to investigate.

*I was considering using the phrase “huevos”, meaning balls, but I find the connotation both too complimentary: If there is anything that describes Alberto “Abu” Gonzalez, it is his complete lack of balls. He would never, ever say no.

A Failing State With Nuclear Weapons

No Comments

No, I don’t mean Pakistan, I mean India, where they have just carved up the province of Andhra Pradesh.

It appears to be political pandering to a coalition partner, but it also sounds a lot like a nation that will soon be joining Pakistan in having issues with its territorial integrity:

The Indian government agreed to carve a separate state out of the southern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh, which includes the information-technology capital of Hyderabad, following days of violent protests.

The government’s unexpected decision, which could spur social unrest and separatist demands in other regions, faces legislative hurdles — and prompted 83 of Andhra Pradesh’s 295 legislators to say they would resign in protest.

Hyderabad has been hit by protests from supporters of K. Chandrashekar Rao, who heads the Telangana Rashtra Samithi political party dedicated to establishing a separate state for the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, which includes Hyderabad.

This is not the sort of thing that a cohesive nation state does.

Hopefully, this is not the beginning of a downward trajectory for India as a nation-state.

Zimbabwe Update

No Comments

The big news is the political fight over a bill to reform the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which after much conflict, was finally passed by Parliament.

What likely led to this meeting of the minds was evidence that the incompetent and corrupt management of RBZ Director Gideon Gono was driving away potential donors and foreign investors.

That being said, I do not think that the RBZ bill was why China has signed an $8 billion investment deal.

In any case, Gono was last seen attempting to strong-arm banks into lending to expropriated farms, which is not surprising as the ZANU-PF is stepping up its farm seizures for corrupt bureaucrats program.

In any case, the unity government is holding cabinet meetings again, which is a good sign, I guess.

Of more significance is the fact that Botswana President Ian Khama is calling for new elections and explicitly blaming the ZANU-PF for the lack of progress.

It’s nice that someone involved the SADC “Enable Mugabe Program” is pushing back.

Additionally, we are starting to see protests in Europe against the SADC’s support of Mugabe: Zimbabwe Vigil has petitioned the EU to suspend all aid to members of the SADC, which is a start.

More significant, though may be the fact that PM Morgan Tsvangirai is to meet with Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, current chairman of the AU.

This is a positive development for a number of reasons:

  • Gadaffi won’t run like a scared kitten at Mugabe’s accusations of being a “neocolonialist stooge”, because, after all, Ronald Reagan tried to kill him, and he blew up Pan Am flight 103.
  • As head of the AU, he words have a lot of influence.
  • As an oil exporter, his dollars have a lot of influence.
  • Gadaffi is very interested in getting credibility on the world stage, and by taking on Mugabe aggressively, he gets that credibility with almost no risk involved.

So, after massive smuggling, murders by the authorities, and forced labor, the Kimberley Process decides against suspending Zimbabwe’s certification as a being not “conflict diamonds”, despite a
report from their own investigators saying that they should be suspended.

This reveals the Kimberly process a complete and utter joke, and on queue, once the threat of suspension is lifted, the New Reclamation Group Ltd. mining company sweeps in with a contract.

There is a promise by the Zimbabwe government not to export diamonds until measures are in place to prevent abuse, but I don’t trust this very much, if it comes from the Prime Minister’s office, then it means nothing, and if it comes from Mugabe, it’s a flat out lie.

Of note, The Rapaport Group and the RapNet Diamond Trading Network have announced that they are “implementing an immediate trading ban on all diamonds from Zimbabwe due to severe human rights violations in Marange,” and Leber Jeweler Inc. has announced the same.

Meanwhile, outside of the diamond trade, things continue apace, with Mugabe and the ZANU-PF planning to introduce a law which would require that foreign owned companies be majority black owned. Note: not even the majority locally owned, this is determined by the pigmentation of the equity holders.

ZANU-PF has become the party of Apartheid in Zimbabwe.

We also have continued use of the state security apparatus to intimidate the opposition, with the head of the national trade union being arrested on trumped up charges, as well as the increasingly bizarre trial of deputy agriculture minister-designate Roy Bennett.

What do we have on the case of Bennett, we have a judge who made statements at the trial of the chief witness against Bennett that indicate bias. This is important because this witness, Peter Hitschmann, has recanted his testimony and alleged that it was extracted by torture.

We also have the police presenting weapons that were not seized from Bennett’s house as evidence, and that the Defence is has a request to have the police log books on this matter made available to them, and the police, as well as the attorney general, are vociferously fighting this.

Bad News for the Cyberterrorism Protection Racket

No Comments

A while back This Sunday, 60 Minutes did a piece on how hackers created a massive blackout in Brazil.

Only it wasn’t any sort of computer problem, it was poorly maintained power lines, where soot (carbon is conductive) created short circuits which took down the line:

Brazil’s independent systems operator group later confirmed that the failure of a 345-kilovolt line “was provoked by pollution in the chain of insulators due to deposits of soot” (.pdf). And the National Agency for Electric Energy, Brazil’s energy regulatory agency, concluded its own investigation in January 2009 and fined Furnas $3.27 million (.pdf) for failing to maintain the high-voltage insulators on its transmission towers.

Also look at their additional links:

So, as it stands right now, the only people claiming this have no proof, but are likely to get contracts, if they are private, or additional government money, if they are public.

The issue here is the vulnerability of the grid, see the 2003 blackout, and the problem is that since privatizing electric utilities, they have skimped on infrastructure, leaving no margin for error.

This is Never Good News

No Comments

The much delayed audit of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has been delayed again:

A much-anticipated audit of the Federal Housing Administration was abruptly postponed just before it was supposed to be made public, after questions arose about its accuracy.

The auditor, Integrated Financial Engineering, said it notified the F.H.A. late Tuesday that its computer models were creating unexplained inconsistencies. A news conference scheduled for Wednesday morning was canceled.

The audit calculates whether or not there are solvency issues under various economic scenarios.

The fact that concerns over these models led to another delay on the release of the audit is concerning, to say the least, particularly since, “The delinquency rate on F.H.A. loans was 14 percent in the second quarter.”

EU Approves Lisbon Treaty

No Comments

This is a major streamlining of the EU’s governance practices:

The treaty aims to give the European Union a bigger role internationally by creating a full-time presidential post with a two-and-a-half-year term and setting up a more powerful foreign policy chief supported by a network of diplomats around the world. It will put in place a new voting system that reflects countries’ population size, while reducing the opportunities for individual countries to block a proposal. It also gives more power to the directly elected European Parliament.

So, they have it.

Now they need to show what they are going to do with it.

These have Epic Fail Written All Over Them

No Comments

In order to deal with budget issues, Mayor Daley of Chicago is considering selling its water system to private operators, and allowing them to charge whatever they want.

So he gets the money, and succeeding generations get the revenue loss and more expensive water.

Also, the state that has so many bad ideas that it gave us both Barry Goldwater and John McCain is looking to turn over operation of their prisons to a private firm.

This one is a little different though, because private prisons have already been tried, and failed, with some of the institutions going so far as to bribe judges to send children to them for minor crimes.

This will not end well.

Zimbabwe Update

No Comments

Well, it’s been about a month, so it’s time to review again how screwed things up are in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe.

On the bright side, we are seeing push-back from various institutions in Zimbabwe, which seem all to be tied to the knowledge that Robert Mugabe, who is 85, will not be around for much longer.

The most obvious sign is the struggle within the ZANU-PF over who the next Vice President should be. It’s clear that everyone out there feels that whoever has this post is likely to succeed Mugabe, particularly given the earlier reports of his ill health.

On a more significant note, we are now seeing that banks are no longer considering Mugabe’s land grab letters as sufficient collateral for loans:

Zanu (PF) officials, for long used to free agricultural implements and inputs from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe after taking over large-scale commercial farms, could be facing a gloomy year.

Not only is the government prioritising small-scale farmers this time around, but banks have resisted pressure to accept ‘offer letters’ and 99-year leases as collateral for loans.

President Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF) have been lobbying banks to accept as collateral the ‘offer letters’, which purportedly authorise the holder to forcibly take over a farm.

However, at the weekend, the Bankers’ Association of Zimbabwe reiterated that banks required “asset-based security”.

Basically, the banks are seeing Mugabe as not being long for this earth, and so they don’t want to be left holding the bag.

The push back is getting severe enough that even the criminal courts are actually starting to apply the law in something resembling a non-corrupt manner, with the Zimbabwe Supreme Court dismissing terrorism charges against human rights Jestina Mukoko, and declaring that she was terrorized by the state security apparatus, and, perhaps more significantly, the Office of the Attorney General declining to represent government officials who have been sued by her.

These are little steps, however, and we are still seeing things like Roy Bennett, the MDC’s nominee for Deputy Agriculture Minister, being indicted and imprisoned on what are clearly trumped up charges of terrorism….Gee…there are a lot of terrorism charges flying about the Zim courts, huh?

In the economy, we are continuing to see improvements in the economy, with inflation continuing to moderate, but the looting by ZANU-PF apparatchiks continues.

Most notably, we have seen the seizure of Meikles Group, a hospitality and import/export firm, and has placed the firm under government control, which, if the earlier seizure of Shabanie Mashaba Mine Holdings, where looting has been so extensive that workers and utilities are not being paid.

We are also similar actions against Nestlé, where the firm has stopped buying its milk from Mugabe’s wife’s farm in order to comply with Swiss sanctions, and the government has frozen the firm’s bank accounts.

Finally, we have the fact that Central Bank governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Tendai Biti tusseling over the spending of the recent IMF loan, with Gono, a Mugabe Ally, basically wanting to shovel money to Mugabe cronies, and Biti wanting the money to things like roads, bridges, and healthcare. (here and here)

And People Pile on Berlusconi

No Comments

With Members of the European Parliament calling for sanctions against Italy over media consolidation in Italy:

Mr Berlusconi owns three commercial broadcasters, has indirect control over three public channels and owns a series of magazines, newspapers and radio stations as well as the country’s largest publishing house. His advertising firm controls much of the advertising sales in Italy, allowing his reach to extend to media beyond his direct control.

The MEPs say this has created a climate of media intimidation where journalists are fired for stepping out of line while others self-censor to hold onto their jobs. Key posts in the media are based on an individual being sufficiently deferential to the current administration, critics allege.

It would be nice if some action comes from this.

As bad as the MSM is in the United States, the idea of a political candidate controlling all the TV and cable outlets in a country is a scary thing.

The vote, which passed 268 – 284, is merely to start an inquiry, but it’s a good thing.

I think that what is going on with Berlusconi here is very similar to what was done with Pablo Escobar: You peel away at layers of protection, and eventually, pretty much all at once, the house of cards collapses, and you take the crook down.

Cash for Clunkers Have had a Long Term Effect

1 Comment

The folks at the Wall Street Journal miss the point, by stressing capacity cuts, but it takes 2-3 years for new cars to become used cars.

I’m not sure whey they do this, except for the fact that the jobs being lost are UAW jobs.

More significant is the fact that anyone who got cash for a clunker under the government program did not have their car work its way down the used car ecology.

Cars traded in under that program had to be rendered undrivable, generally by putting abrasive in the crankcase.

What that means is that there has been a significant reduction in used cars in the pipeline, which is likely going to be boosting used car prices, and possibly new car prices, for the next few years.

This was no Boat Accident

No Comments

Well, we have an update on the death of Bill Sparkman, the US Census worker who was found dead at a cemetery in Daniel Boone National Forest.

He was naked except for his socks, gagged, and bound hand and foot with duct tape, and had the word “Fed” written on his chest in pen, but authorities are, “Still trying to determine if Sparkman died of foul play.”

Seriously, I understand how they might not know the motive, it could be a paranoid meth lab operator, or perhaps something to Glenn Beck’s 912 whack job anti-government paranoia, but when a man is found naked except for his socks, gagged, and bound hand and foot with duct tape, it’s foul play.

This is not some friend and confidant of Jerry Fallwell being found in his closet in wearing two rubber SCUBA suits, rubber underwear, diving gloves and slippers, “numerous straps and cords” restraining him, a leather belt, and a dildo in the anus covered with a condom.

This is a man who was clearly killed by someone else. Of course it’s foul play, and given the area, there is a non-zero possibility that the drug trade, particularly meth, might have something to do with this.

The question is who did this, and why, not whether there was foul play involved.

Holy Crap, the Murders Have Begun in Kentucky

No Comments

It looks like one of Glenn Beck’s or Michelle Bachmann’s butt boy fans has decided to murder a census worker:

The FBI is investigating whether anti-government sentiment led to the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery. A law enforcement official told The Associated Press the word ‘fed” was scrawled on the dead man’s chest.

The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Speaking as a former “part-time Census field worker”, I think that until the perp is found, the door to door survey should be stopped now.

If you don’t like census takers, fine. No congressman for you.

If there is reduced representation of the crazy parts of the country, then the governance of the country will improve.

Remember When I Said “First Comes the Denial”?

No Comments

Here, when I noted that the FHA was flat out denying that increased write-downs on loans would require a bailout?

My response was:

Next should come a statement of health, then a statement of robust health (or some synonym), and then comes the bailout.

Well, here we are, and the FHA is admitting that it will fall below the cash reserves required by legislation, but they are denying that it will require that they increase the fees that they charge on the loans, or that they get a bailout.

Instead they are planning to announce, “Several measures that should help the reserves rebound quickly.”

Yeah….Right, like that will work, though their decision to require future property valuations conform with the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), will go a long way toward fixing what continues to be a broken system where realtors whipsaw the appraisers, as the FHA is pretty close to the only game in town right now.

H/t Calculated Risk.

A Claude Rains Moment

No Comments

I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!

The New York Times is reporting that all though the bailout process, Hank Paulson was consulting daily, and in some cases hourly, with Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, despite ethics requirements, and promises to Congress during his confirmation hearing, that would mandate that he keep the firm at arm’s length.

What’s more, he did not have similar conversations with any of the other investment firms.

It should be noted that many of these conversations were during the initial resolution of the AIG crisis, where the decision to honor what were clearly fraudulent credit default swap (CDS) contracts kept Goldman, and the rest of the Wall Street solvent, and out of government hands, protecting their high paying jobs.

Seriously, whether or not you want to go after Bush and His Evil Minions™ for things like torture, which we should, this is garden variety corruption, and not criminalizing policy, and should be pursued to the fullest extent of the law.

H/T The Big Picture.