Category: Wanker

Poster Child for Regulatory Capture

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So, it seems that after much in the way of government bailout money, and the fact that much of their voting equity is now government owned, the FDIC is looking at ousting Citi CEO Vikram Pandit.

There is one problem though, evidence of excessive spending on his lavish offices, his pay, and his bonuses is not enough to convince Timothy “Eddie Haskell” Geithner that a management change is justified, so he’s digging his heels in to keep Pandit as running, and mismanaging, Citigroup.

The first reform we need is to make sure that senior political officials who make policy aren’t just the big bank’s towel boys, and this ain’t happening.

People Who Do Not Understand that They Are Really Stupid

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Yeah, the New York Times is on a real roll.

In an article on plans going through congress about fixing the US healthcare system, reporter Kevin Sack delivers this bon mot:

But critics argue that with low administrative costs and no need to produce profits, a public plan will start with an unfair pricing advantage. They say that if a public plan is allowed to pay doctors and hospitals at levels comparable to Medicare’s, which are substantially below commercial insurance rates, it could set premiums so low it would quickly consume the market.

(emphasis mine)

Ummm….Let me get this straight, the knock on a public option is that it will be too efficient?

The costs will be too low!!!! And the service will be too good!!!!

Horrors.

Dude, that’s the point. Private insurance has utterly failed!!!! Unless you have them compete against something better, they will stay crappy.

I have an idea, how about we start requiring PCB’s in tap water, because it unfairly competes with bottled water.

More Economic Journamalism

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Remember when I was talking about economic journamalism on durable goods orders?

Well Bloomberg gets the story right, with U.S. Economy: Durable-Goods Orders Hover Near Lowest Since 1996, but Reuters (U.S. April durable goods orders post biggest gain in 16 months), and CNBC (Durable Goods in Surprise Jump; Jobless Claims Dip), both get it very, very wrong.

Let’s roll the Bloomberg story for what is going on:

Orders rose 1.9 percent in April after a 2.1 percent drop in March that was more than twice as large as previously estimated, the Commerce Department said in Washington. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said 6.79 million people are collecting jobless benefits, and another report showed new-home sales were lower than forecast in April.

(emphasis mine)

OK, this looks like a 1.9% bump, which is a significant bump, but Bloomberg covered this as low numbers.

Why is this correct, and Reuters and CNBC wrong?

That phrase, “more than twice as large as previously estimated,” is why it is wrong.

As Reuters notes a few ‘graphs down:

However, March orders were revised sharply lower, falling 2.1 percent from the previously reported 0.8 percent decline.

So, we are comparing initial estimates for April with revised numbers for March.

If you were to compare apples to apples, you would have 1.9%-2.1%-(-0.8%), or 1.9%-2.1%+0.8%, or a growth of 0.6% comparing apples to apples.

In fact, you get a lot of this out of the government statistic machine, and it’s faithfully echoed by the press.

You have a number that is an improvement over the last month’s (revised) numbers, and it’s really good news…..And then, a few weeks later it’s revised down, and the new figures for the next month come out, and they look really good compared to the downwardly revised previous figures.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

Morons Trying to Drum Up Billable HOurs

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So, two lawyers specializing in IP litigation have proposed changes in copyright and anti-trust law to bolster newspapers.

Unsurprisingly, their proposals would create an explosion of litigation, which would mean that they could buy that yacht that they have their eye on.

What they propose:

  • Ummm….Making search engines indexing web sites a copyright violation?
    • The idea here is that creating an index is a copyright violation, which means that things like the old index of periodicals in the library, an essential research tool, would be illegal.
  • And allow newspapers to price fix, so that they can all start charging for online content.
    • Let’s note that newspapers are not in the business of selling the content called “news”, they are in the business of selling advertising. The cost of purchasing a paper only covers the cost of the ink, paper, and printing. That’s why, when the chains started buying up newspapers, and cutting newsrooms about 2 decades ago, they could generate those 20%+ margins on a much crappier product.
    • The threat to newspapers is not people reading their news online, it’s Craig’s List. It’s the loss of classified ad revenue that has put these institutions behind the financial 8-ball
      • Oh, yes, there’s also the issue of accumulating insane levels of debt to build these chains in the first place.
  • Federalizing the “hot news” doctrine.
    • This one is just plain stupid. It’s a 1918 decision which says that a news service cannot take a story from another, rewrite it, and pass it off as it’s own, which is a good idea, but they want to make the reporting that a news source broke a story, like, “The Wall Street Journal reported today that sources in the Treasury have determined

As Timothy Karr notes

But consider this. Just a few years ago, the average profit margin for newspapers was 20 percent — with some raking in twice as much or more.

“Did they use these astronomical profits to invest in the quality of their products or to innovate for the future?” asked Free Press’ Craig Aaron on Thursday. “No. They just bought up more newspapers and TV stations.” (On May 12 Free Press released a National Journalism Strategy that outlines forward-thinking policies to save journalism, and not merely prop up the creaking old guard.)

(emphasis mine)

I am not concerned about the future of news papers, I am concerned about the future of journalism……Scratch that…I am concerned about the present of journalism, because the professionals out there, whether covering George W. Bush, the housing bubble, or just publishing this bit of crap, seems to be in a state of incompetent free fall.

Professional journalism today in the United States is a captive of those that they cover, and so people like me go to foreign and not-for-profit sources to find our news.

Wanker of the Day

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Senator Wyden who is leading the charge to strip the public option out of health care, because he has set his heart on, “Finding a legislative solution that can win at least 70 votes in the Senate.”

Dude, if you come up with a solution that works, it condemns the Republicans to at least 40 years in the wilderness, so the only thing that they will support will be something that doesn’t work.

Both ideologically and tactically, it is against their interests to pass comprehensive health care reform.

The stimulus package passed with 3 Republican votes in the entire congress, Social Security passed without a single Republican vote, and you think that somehow getting 12 Republicans to vote you way is going to happen with any proposal with real merit.

You sir, are an idiot.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Pledge to NPR

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There is a documentary out called Outrage about closeted gay politicians, and NPR did a review, and upper management rewrote it to specifically exclude the names to two politicians, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and Senator Larry Craig, from the review, which so outraged the author that he removed his byline from it. (His story had been written with close consultation of his editor)

As Pam Spalding notes, “NPR has no business tossing out the “privacy” card when it couldn’t resist deeming John Edwards’s heterosexual tomcatting newsworthy, underscoring that there were legitimate political reasons for the reporting.”

If I weren’t not giving because of their vociferous opposition to low power local broadcasts, I would not give to them because they have been completely captured by the sensibilities of the “inside the Beltway” crowd.

It Could Be Worse, I Could Live in Minnesota

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And be represented by Michele Bachmann, though she is worth a spit take.

Latest case in point: Suggesting that the Swine Flu outbreak is some sort of Democratic Party plot:

‘I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it’s an interesting coincidence.’

Except, of course, it happened under Gerald Ford, and the media frenzy over the flu was electioneering largely driven by Ford’s SecDef, Don Rumsfeld, like a bad apple, he keeps turning up.

The stupid, it burns, it burns.

Byron York Thinks that Black People Don’t Count

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Or maybe he thinks that they only count 3/5ths.

His claim is that Barak Obama’s support is somehow not real, because he is polling much higher among black voters, which ignores the fact that Democratic Presidents always poll higher among black voters, because they know that the Republicans have become the party of bigotry and segregation.

Simply put, when you see one party as hating you and trying to do harm to you, any representative of an opposing party looks better.

But Byron York, in a perfect reflection of the Republican Party, wants to say that black Americans simply do not count, much like the Republican Party vote suppression apparatus says that black American votes simply should not be counted.

Ross Douthat is a F$#@ing Moron

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So, the latest New York Times OP/ED page conservative affirmative action case has his debut editorial for the paper, and what is his trenchant analysis?

It’s that the Republicans should have nominated Richard Milhaus Cheney as their presidential nominee in 2008.

I guess that’s because Cheney is such a photogenic and friendly dude, whether talking about his penis (top picture), or simply snarling at the American public (bottom).

Of course this is not really what the author believes. He wanted Cheney to run because he would have been beaten like a baby seal while showing how the right wing orthodoxy needs to be repackaged: It’s simply link bait, as Froomkin notes.

He wants people to read him, so Douthat says something outrageous, and finishes with, “And when he went down to a landslide loss, the conservative movement might – might! – have been jolted into the kind of rethinking that’s necessary if it hopes to regain power.”

No. Simply put, he is being a tool to get buzz, and it increasingly appears that the Republican Neocons are simply some sort of truly subversive performance art group.

I miss William Safire, who while right wing, had a brain, and could actually string together words in an attractive way.

Between Tierney, Kristol, and now Douthat, it appears that the sure sign that you are really, really, stupid is getting a regular Times OP/ED slot.

Yes, I know, I am really describing him being an asshole, not stupid, but his argument boils down to, “We should have nominated Dick Cheney, and we would have lost much better.”

That’s Doug “The Stupidest Motherf^%$er on the Planet” Feith stupid, and the New York Times already has a surfeit of stupid among their regular columnists, with Maureen Dowd, who covers politics like she is a junior high schooler dissing a classmates choice in shoes.

Still it appears that but it appears that Andrew Rosenthal, the Editorial Page Editor, feels that they need some more stupid.

Washington’s Various Serious People in Action

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Here we see Republican Senator Susan Collins saying that we should cut the stimulus money for flu pandemic.

They cut the money, because they are “centrists”, and unless they do something to throw their weight around, it means nothing, so Collins killed the money on pandemic preparedness, to show “fiscal responsibility”, and we may be on the brink of a major flu outbreak.

Bobby Jindal lambasted volcano monitoring, and Mount Redoubt erupted.

Republican spending cuts are making me very nervous about the next shoe to drop.

Financial Firms Lobby to Cut Cost of TARP Exit – WSJ.com

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It looks like the Treasury will allow some of the TARP recipients to pay back their money early, though it is implied that the stress test has to be complete, and that their financial status has to be well capitalized, in order for them to do this.

In a related note, the banks are lobbying to reduce the costs of the loans that they took:

The banking industry is aggressively lobbying the Treasury Department to make it less costly for financial institutions to get out of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

…

At issue are “warrants” the government received when it bought preferred stock in roughly 500 banks over the past six months as part of TARP. The warrants allow the government to buy common stock in the banks at a later date so taxpayers can receive more of a return on their investment when the banking industry recovers.

Many banks want to return their TARP money and, as part of that effort, want to expunge the warrants. To do that, banks must either buy them back from the government or allow the Treasury to sell them to private investors.

Today, most of the warrants are essentially worthless, because their exercise price is higher than where most banks’ stocks are trading. But the government believes the warrants still have value, since they give the Treasury the right to buy common stock at a set price for 10 years.

Bankers say it is unfair to charge what amounts to a “prepayment penalty,” which makes it additionally onerous to escape TARP. Bank representatives say the cost of buying back the warrants could be equivalent to paying 60% annual interest on short-term loans. That, they argue, would exacerbate banks’ existing problems.

(emphasis mine)

Awww….the poor little babies, they have a “prepayment penalty“, such a pity.

The irony is delicious.

Wanker of the Day: Henry Porter

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Mr. Porter is complaining about Google and Youtube, because in negotiating with Performing Rights Society, the UK music licensing organization, Google, “took down the videos of the artists concerned,” when the PRS demanded £0.22, about $0.40, for each video watched.

I would be surprised if Google grosses $0.04 per video watched on Youtube, and they are demanding nearly half a dollar, so Google tells you to pound sand, and it appears that he’s also angry because Google “only” takes down infringing material promptly when notified, when required by law, as opposed to…well, it’s not clear, but he thinks it’s bad.

Tough.

This is where the idea of IP as “property” as opposed to “temporary exclusive license” gets us, and it does not encourage the useful sciences and arts, which is what it’s there for, at least in the USA.

I’m So Happy With Obama’s DNC Chair

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You know, Tim Kaine, who Obama hand picked as head of the Democratic National Committee, who just signed a bill creating “Choose Life” license plates in Virginia, and has promised to support a bill banning state funding of embryonic stem cell research in the state.

I guess that throwing pro-choice advocates to the wolves is Obama’s way to “reach out to the right.”

Thanks a lot, Barack, for foisting this tool on the Democratic Party.

Jake DeSantis, Go Cheney Yourself

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Mr. Desantis used to work for AIG, but quit, and published his letter or resignation in the New York Times.

So, why am I down on the gentleman? Because anyone who writes such a self-important letter, then goes about having it published in the most influential publication in the United States, and wants us to feel sorry for him, despite the fact that, “I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes,” something in the range of $1.2 million pre-tax, is simply an asshole.

Whiners

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Specifically the New York Times reporters covering the press conference:

This was Mr. Obama as more enervating than energizing, a reminder of the way he could be in his early days as a presidential candidate, before he became defined by rapturous crowds.

Hmmm…I wonder why they are so down on the press conference>

He showed his usual comfort with a wide array of subjects, even as he excluded the nation’s big newspapers from the questioning in favor of a more eclectic mix.

Oh my God! He did not ask a New York Times reporter a question. We are masters of the universe! How dare he!

What a bunch of self absorbed pratts.

Larry Summers in a Nutshell

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CONGRESS PASSES WIDE-RANGING BILL EASING BANK LAWS, the New York Times, November 5, 1999:

“Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century,” Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said. “This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy.”

And folks who got it right:

“I think we will look back in 10 years’ time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930’s is true in 2010,” said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. “I wasn’t around during the 1930’s or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980’s when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.”

Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat of Minnesota, said that Congress had “seemed determined to unlearn the lessons from our past mistakes.”

“Scores of banks failed in the Great Depression as a result of unsound banking practices, and their failure only deepened the crisis,” Mr. Wellstone said. “Glass-Steagall was intended to protect our financial system by insulating commercial banking from other forms of risk. It was one of several stabilizers designed to keep a similar tragedy from recurring. Now Congress is about to repeal that economic stabilizer without putting any comparable safeguard in its place.”

So, I’m so glad that Lawrence Summers’ astonishing brilliance and foresight are at the disposal of the President of the United States of America.