Rock on.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Top 10 Birds I Ate This Year
1) Guinea Fowl
2) Partridge
3) Pheasant
4) Duck
5) Wood Pigeon
6) Quail
7) Grouse
8) Turkey
9) Chicken
10) More Chicken
2) Partridge
3) Pheasant
4) Duck
5) Wood Pigeon
6) Quail
7) Grouse
8) Turkey
9) Chicken
10) More Chicken
Vice President YellsAtPeopleOnYouTube
Republicans like Christie because even though he's probably not really a tribal conservative in the contemporary sense, he likes to talk shit about liberals and yell at them.
I'm Voting For Tpaw
This is about as deep a thought as I'll have today:
Our presidential primary system is really stupid.
Our presidential primary system is really stupid.
Don't Piss On My Leg And Tell Me It's Raining
Smart companies stick in sneaky fees so you don't notice, dumb ones announce that they're going to charge you for the privilege of paying your bill.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Clueless Elites
I entered (state) college at a moment of financial crisis. Departments were encouraged (forced) to use mimeographs instead of copy machines. Sure miss that smell!
In September, MF Global Holdings Ltd.'s management sent a memo to the securities firm's 2,800 employees: Start printing on both sides of paper.
Let's Try Something Which Has Never Been Tried Before
More austerity!
At least the new Spanish government is claiming they're going to tax the rich. We'll see.
At least the new Spanish government is claiming they're going to tax the rich. We'll see.
Killadelphia
Yes we have a lot of murders. It's largely members of the underclass killing each other. It sucks.
Fail
While I'm never quite sure how much to blame stupid or evil, the important takeaway of this Krugman column is that the people who run the world have failed to do a very simple thing and in doing so have condemned millions to unneeded suffering.
Stingy Parents
Yes it seems rather obvious that if you pay teachers more you'll probably get better ones. We seem to understand that in every other area of the economy. Perhaps if there was less of a constant drumbeat about how teachers were all history's greatest monsters some better people might be attracted into the profession, also, too.
One things which confuses me greatly is when people with actual school aged children in public schools bitch about teacher salaries. I don't mean complaining about an actual bad teacher, complaining about specifics. I'm talking about the general 'teachers get paid too much' bitching that people to do.
They're looking after your children 7 hours per day 180 days per year. You don't want them to be paid much? Lower taxes for me, then.
One things which confuses me greatly is when people with actual school aged children in public schools bitch about teacher salaries. I don't mean complaining about an actual bad teacher, complaining about specifics. I'm talking about the general 'teachers get paid too much' bitching that people to do.
They're looking after your children 7 hours per day 180 days per year. You don't want them to be paid much? Lower taxes for me, then.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
BARTed
A few people wrote in to say that BART is what it is (mostly a commuter rail system) and it's supplemented by the MUNI, which is true, but the combination isn't quite good enough.
Not picking on SF. Transit isn't perfect in my urban hellhole either, was just pointing to the thinking behind the design of the system. An immense amount of money was spent creating a system to bring people in and out of the city, and less was devoted to moving people around within the city.
Not picking on SF. Transit isn't perfect in my urban hellhole either, was just pointing to the thinking behind the design of the system. An immense amount of money was spent creating a system to bring people in and out of the city, and less was devoted to moving people around within the city.
Hey, People Actually Live Here
For cities that have, at least for the moment, stemmed or reversed decades of declining population, policymakers need to change the focus from "how can we make life better for commuters and encourage more visitors" to "oh, hey, let's make life nice for people who actually live here." BART's a system which was too much designed to bring commuters into the city, and doesn't function well as a "getting around the city" system. It'll probably take a miracle for the money to appear to improve its functioning in the urban core, but it is what they should be thinking about.
San Francisco, specifically, is at its historic peak population.
San Francisco, specifically, is at its historic peak population.
Domino
Without getting into this fully, it provides an excuse to point out that even relatively small amounts of racial bias sprinkled through the system can ultimately lead to rather large difference in outcomes, due to perfectly rational responses by those affected by racism. The basic story is that if you have to work 10% harder to do as well, you're probably going to work less hard. In economist speak, if the marginal benefit is less than the marginal effort you aren't going to bother. The stories of those exceptional individuals who rise above the system are heartwarming, but as a society we compare those individuals with the people who were born on third and narrowly manage to stay there even as they inexplicably and repeatedly try to steal second. When kids born to insane privilege barely manage to navigate their way through their teen and college years, it's absurd to expect a significant number of kids facing racism and other barriers to all hit homers their first time on the field.
Tithe
The CIA tells me Iraq's GDP is $110 billion.
I'm sure nothing could go wrong.
BAGHDAD — The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military despite concerns that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is seeking to consolidate authority, create a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government.
I'm sure nothing could go wrong.
Regardless Of His Intentions, He Ran Off With My Wallet
Reading the NYT especially about MF Global and I get the sense that for whatever reason the lawyers are scrutinizing every article before publication.
All just a big oopsie, really, no one is to blame.
In MF Global’s last days, the brokerage house was frantically winding down trades to shore up its balance sheet and stave off bankruptcy. Investigators are examining whether the firm — as part of that effort — began moving client funds to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, a financial intermediary responsible for closing out some of MF Global’s transactions, these people say.
The new details bolster claims that MF Global was careless with customer money, regardless of the company’s intentions.
...
It is unclear how much customer money was transferred to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, and whether officials at MF Global knew they were using client funds. Haphazard recordkeeping and the flood of transactions in its final days might have concealed whether MF Global was deploying the customer cash for firm needs.
All just a big oopsie, really, no one is to blame.
Nothing New Here
It's been a mystery to me why so many have seemingly spent so much time trying to "understand" the Tea Party as if it's Shiny And New. Same crazy assholes we've been dealing with forever.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Urban Hellholes -- Less Hellish
Some cities - mine included - still have serious crime problems, but the Escape From New York vision of the near future didn't come to pass.
It's News That He Said It
Fortunately the conventions of contemporary journalism don't require any exploration of the truth of the claims.
This woman could be invented for all I know, but let's assume she's real and not lying, in that she thinks she's communicating something truthfully. I'm not aware of anything in "Obamacare" that could make this actually true, but one problem with the politics of the legislation is that Obama essentially does own "health care" in the United States. For a lot of people, health care (and paying for it) really really sucks. I don't know what her situation is, but granting that she's real and telling the truth as she sees it, it isn't completely crazy to imagine that she's facing a horrible situation and blames "Obamacare" for it. Most of "Obamacare" doesn't come online until 2014, and even super optimistically it isn't going to improve things all that much.
URBANDALE, Iowa -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday warned that President Obama's health reform law could result in the death of ill patients, relating the story of a cancer patient he met Tuesday at a campaign stop in Creston, Iowa.
"She came up to me and she said 'Governor, if you don't get rid of Obamacare, I'm dead," he recounted. "She said they will never take care of me. And that's a powerful testimony by that lady."
This woman could be invented for all I know, but let's assume she's real and not lying, in that she thinks she's communicating something truthfully. I'm not aware of anything in "Obamacare" that could make this actually true, but one problem with the politics of the legislation is that Obama essentially does own "health care" in the United States. For a lot of people, health care (and paying for it) really really sucks. I don't know what her situation is, but granting that she's real and telling the truth as she sees it, it isn't completely crazy to imagine that she's facing a horrible situation and blames "Obamacare" for it. Most of "Obamacare" doesn't come online until 2014, and even super optimistically it isn't going to improve things all that much.
To Restate
The point of this is...there was a way to hand it free money which would benefit all of us and the banksters. I'm partial to the "just drop money from helicopters" way of giving out free money, but there were other ways. The "here's a $20,000 voucher to pay off your mortgage and/or credit card" would have been a way. The point is, the banks would have gotten their money anyway and the rest of us would have benefited too.
I know I'm repeating myself on this issue. It's because people's brains freeze up a bit when you talk about the central bank creating money and handing it out. But that's what they're doing! They're just not doing it in a way which benefits people broadly, they're doing it in a way which benefits rich assholes.
I know I'm repeating myself on this issue. It's because people's brains freeze up a bit when you talk about the central bank creating money and handing it out. But that's what they're doing! They're just not doing it in a way which benefits people broadly, they're doing it in a way which benefits rich assholes.
Obviously The Solution Is
...more austerity.
From cases of newborn babies wrapped in swaddling and dumped on the doorsteps of clinics, to children being offloaded on charities and put in foster care, the nation's struggle to pay off its debts is assuming dramatic proportions, even if officials insist that the belt-tightening and structural reforms will eventually change the EU's most uncompetitive economy for the better.
Propelled by poverty, 500 families had recently asked to place children in homes run by the charity SOS Children's Villages, according to the Greek daily Kathimerini. One toddler was left at the nursery she attended with a note that read: "I will not return to get Anna. I don't have any money, I can't bring her up. Sorry. Her mother."
Too Often Forgotten
The big banks aren't just assholes, they're criminal enterprises.
Save the banksters, save the world!!!
In the U.S., JPMorgan was investigated by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and attorneys general in 25 states for its role in rigging the bids of investment contracts. The bank agreed to a $228 million settlement this year on charges that it conspired to overcharge cities at taxpayer expense, acknowledging responsibility for illegal, anticompetitive conduct by former employees.
In 2009, JPMorgan entered a $722 million accord with the SEC to end an investigation into its role in selling derivatives that helped push Jefferson County, Alabama, to declare the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. The bank paid $75 million in fines and restitution and wrote off $647 million it was owed by the county.
Save the banksters, save the world!!!
Skimmers
Martin Wolf:
Of course there's no good conceptual reason why the banks should be these conduits. I could be the conduit. All of the unemployed people in Spain could be the conduit. If the central bank is handing out massive amounts of free money they could hand it out to anyone.
An immense amount of free money has been given out in this crisis. Most of it has gone to the rich assholes who continue to create the problems.
Thus the ECB is determined to fund banks freely, at low rates of interest, thereby subsidising them directly and the governments they lend to, indirectly.
Why lending to banks that use the money they borrow to lend to governments is good, while lending to governments directly is bad, is hard to understand. The only obvious difference is that in the case of lending via banks, the intermediaries may themselves go broke. That makes them unavoidably unreliable conduits. Yet if this complex procedure gets round theological objections to direct financing of governments, those who believe some financing of governments is now needed should be content.
Of course there's no good conceptual reason why the banks should be these conduits. I could be the conduit. All of the unemployed people in Spain could be the conduit. If the central bank is handing out massive amounts of free money they could hand it out to anyone.
An immense amount of free money has been given out in this crisis. Most of it has gone to the rich assholes who continue to create the problems.
Good For Him
Obviously I think he's horrible for wanting to outlaw abortions, but the rapeandincest "exception" has always been complete gibberish, allowing people who support something monstrous to be seen and to see themselves as somehow being less monstrous.
Bring On The Immigrants
The urban hellhole managed to not lose population last decade, due mostly to arriving immigrants.
I didn't realize there was a large (and increasing) Puerto Rican population. Most of the Hispanic residents near my neighborhood are from Puebla.
There's been surprisingly little visible obvious racial animus directed towards the newer minority residents (Asian,Hispanic). Fortunately there are still plenty of black people for the (shrinking number of) white residents to hate!
I didn't realize there was a large (and increasing) Puerto Rican population. Most of the Hispanic residents near my neighborhood are from Puebla.
There's been surprisingly little visible obvious racial animus directed towards the newer minority residents (Asian,Hispanic). Fortunately there are still plenty of black people for the (shrinking number of) white residents to hate!
Tell Me Another One
I suppose two years of a payroll tax cut is better than one year of Making Work Pay, but 1) we don't yet have another year and 2) Making Work Pay was, you know, better.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
When A Cheap, Effective, Safe, Foolproof HIV Vaccine Arrives
They'll do everything they can to make it illegal.
Flat
It is actually the case that (surprisingly) we've had small but fairly steady improvements in public transit over the past decade or so nationally, along with a slight shift in living in more transit friendly places. I'm ready to buy that changing habits has played a small role in this phenomenon, if just a small one.
The Benator Is Retiring
And please whatever deity is out there, do not torture me by putting Bob Kerrey back in the senate.
Spreading
It'll be interesting to see what happens if the basic geographic pattern of poverty that we've believed in for decades (poor black people in cities, poor white people in rural areas, middle class in suburbs, rich wherever the hell they want to be) breaks down.
Mysteries
Why is it that people who have no jobs and no money hate their friends and family so much that they don't buy them presents?
Fortunately we have a solution, applicable to all situations. Austerity! Smell it!
Italian retailers had the worst Christmas in 10 years, consumer group Codacons said, as austerity measures to combat the sovereign debt crisis prompted households to cut spending.
Fortunately we have a solution, applicable to all situations. Austerity! Smell it!
The Suffering Of Other People
Shorter Washington Post:
I think I do have great business idea: poverty porn for our Galtian overlords. Footage of mass misery is just what they need to cheer them up enough to hire another yacht scrubber or two.
We applaud what Monti is doing, even though it will make things worse, and what he really needs to do is stick it to workers and old people.
I think I do have great business idea: poverty porn for our Galtian overlords. Footage of mass misery is just what they need to cheer them up enough to hire another yacht scrubber or two.
Give Us Some Free Money
I suppose we can be cheered the the Galtian Overlords at the Fed might think they should consider doing something about the unemployment situation, but I'm not sure that more policies which, whatever the overall impact, will primarily give more money to rich people deserve all that much cheer.
By The Banks, For The Banks
I don't have any secret line into what goes on in the White House, but I do hold out some hope that a few years later at least a few more people in its orbit are questioning the wisdom of empowering the evil assholes whose main pastime is lighting piles of free money on fire. When they're not stealing houses, that is.
Killing Ourselves On The Path To Prosperity
Sacrificing ourselves on the altar of the banksters.
Soon they'll be as prosperous as we are!
Greece used to have an extensive public health care system that pretty much ensured that everybody was covered for everything. But in the last two years, the nation’s creditors have pushed hard for dramatic cost savings to cut back the deficit. These measures are taking a brutal toll on the system and on the country’s growing numbers of poor and unemployed who cannot afford the new fees and co-payments instituted at public hospitals as part of the far-reaching austerity drive.
At public hospitals, doctors report shortages of all kinds of supplies, from toilet paper to catheters to syringes. Computerized equipment has gone unrepaired and is no longer in use. Nurses are handling four times the patients they should, and wait times for operations — even cancer surgeries — have grown longer.
Soon they'll be as prosperous as we are!
Monday, December 26, 2011
Oh I Guess It's Soon Then
So pretty soon we're going to find out if Iowa caucus is the most important thing ever, if those nice people vote for Mittens, or utterly irrelevant, if they vote for Paul or maybe even Gingrich.
Funny how these things work.
Funny how these things work.
Turn Those Machines Back On
Larry Elliott:
We left the same people in charge of the Great Casino, and they, unsurprisingly, want to keep playing the same games. Nothing significant has been changed.
Trading Places concludes with a bankrupt speculator demanding that he should be allowed to get his money back. "Turn those machines back on," he wails. Policymakers have been trying to find a way of doing that for the past four years. They are still looking.
We left the same people in charge of the Great Casino, and they, unsurprisingly, want to keep playing the same games. Nothing significant has been changed.
The A Team
There isn't one. The contemporary Republican party is pretty well represented by its presidential candidates.
SUPERBUS
I'm curious to what extent these are additional trips and to what extent it's people substituting buses for car travel (or rail where that's an option).
Megabus.com and BoltBus led U.S. curbside bus companies that boosted trips by 32 percent this year as travelers opted to leave their cars behind and surf the Internet while traveling, DePaul University researchers said.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Ron Paul Jesus
For some reason there are certain people in political life whose (in)fallibility is of supreme importance, both for their supporters and detractors. On THE LEFT I used to see this a lot with Noam Chomsky, with people who liked him saying things like, "I haven't ever seen him be wrong about anything," while his detractors would point to any little mistake as proof he was a tremendous liar bent on the destruction of the United States and perhaps THE WORLD.
Newt
It looks like Iowa voters caucus-goers might be in the process of turning Ron Paul into a Newt.
In that event, I suppose the handicappers will decide that the bellwether Iowa Caucuses don't really count so much this time around.
And much hand-wringing will ensue on the left, as they try to decide whether or not they like a racist anti-war isolationist who favors a society of bare-foot, pregnant women smoking dope in the kitchen.
In that event, I suppose the handicappers will decide that the bellwether Iowa Caucuses don't really count so much this time around.
And much hand-wringing will ensue on the left, as they try to decide whether or not they like a racist anti-war isolationist who favors a society of bare-foot, pregnant women smoking dope in the kitchen.
Friday, December 23, 2011
The Middlemen
The new way to make money is to have the government mandate that you get 2% of every transaction.
“The culture of cash is strongly ingrained in Italians, even those that don’t evade,” Deputy Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli said at a Dec. 5 press conference in Rome. The government initially wanted to set a 300-euro or 500-euro cash limit but decided against it, Grilli said, reasoning that citizens needed time to adapt to new rules.
Italian banks, which charge businesses up to 2 percent for credit-card transactions, could end up being the main beneficiaries of the new rules, according to Rome-based consumer group Adusbef. “Unless banks cut fees on credit cards and current accounts, they’ll just make more money from the new law,” said Mauro Novelli, the general secretary of the organization, which represents banking and insurance customers.
It's Like It Never Happened
Early on in Our Great And Glorious Iraq adventure there was a bit of detailed coverage on the horrors of war, if only of the "clueless news anchors discover that bombs kill people" variety. Then it...just sort of faded away over time. So many dead and maimed, so many permanently altered.
So Much Fun
I don't know why specifically Ron Paul gets a lot of military support, but it's nice for someone to make the too rarely expressed point that maybe people in the military don't love endless stupid wars.
Any Opportunity
So many conservatives welcome anything which they think gives them license to associate a bunch of absurd racial stereotypes with Obama.
The Great Grift
It's almost as if they aren't too serious about this.
Four Republican presidential candidates – Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Ron Paul -- submitted paper work in time to qualify for Virginia's March 6 primary ballot.
No other GOP contender will be on the Virginia ballot. Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman did not submit signatures with Virginia's State Board of Elections by today's 5 p.m. deadline.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Making Me Miss Little Debbie
I'll outsource the details to Weigel, as I'm mostly blogged out as I said, but I'll just add that this is another version of Above It All Journalism. You know, because after decades of living in this world and failing to actually form any discernible opinions about anything, with mere "hours of journalistic research" I am uniquely qualified to pass judgment on any subject. People who have actual opinions on things are probably guilty of knowing too much about them, and they should respect my expert authoritah. Or something.
Loo?
I think we do use more euphemistic phrases like "restroom," but the writer's point would have been valid if he'd used the word "toilet." Loo just isn't a word in the US.
I Thought Housing Hit Bottom In 2008?
I'll really never understand the failure to deal with this, especially as there really did seem to be win-win-win solutions.
The Zinths are wading back into a U.S. housing market where prices may fall further under the weight of foreclosures and not rebound until 2013, even as the economy builds momentum and mortgage rates remain at record lows, according to a survey of 109 economists released this week by Zillow Inc. When values do rise, the gains probably won’t match those seen in the years prior to the bursting of the bubble in 2006.
Prices for resold homes are down 31 percent since the July 2006 peak, based on the S&P/Case-Shiller Index that tracks 20 major metropolitan areas. Values have increased 3.1 percent since bottoming out in March, though more than a quarter of homeowners with a mortgage are “underwater,” or owe more than their property is worth.
MORAL HAZARD!!!!!
As we've been told for years, the devastating impact on the economy if Uncle Jim gets a wee principal reduction on his Riverside McMansion would last for decades, while perpetually bailing out people who love to light money on fire is the secret to strengthening modern capitalism.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
364K new lucky duckies. Not so bad.
Also, too, today is growth day. 1.8% in 3rd quarter. Not so good.
Also, too, today is growth day. 1.8% in 3rd quarter. Not so good.
Beaters
This is a pretty astounding number
The *average* age is almost 11 years old? Wow.
The average age of cars and light trucks on the road today has risen to 10.6 years, Jenny Lin, senior U.S. economist at Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford Motor Co., said on a Dec. 1 conference call. That’s above the seven-to-7.5 years Ballew says is the long-term average.
The *average* age is almost 11 years old? Wow.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
I Could Use Some Recapitalization
If only we could all borrow at 1% and lend at 5-7%.
Finally we've found our Cadillac driving welfare queens.
Finally we've found our Cadillac driving welfare queens.
Chump Change
Considering the magnitude of the offense. But it's something.
Ah the post-racial society.
The Justice Department on Wednesday announced the largest residential fair-lending settlement in history, saying that Bank of America had agreed to pay $335 million to settle allegations that its Countrywide Financial unit discriminated against black and Hispanic borrowers during the housing boom.
A department investigation concluded that Countrywide had charged higher fees and rates to more than 200,000 minority borrowers across the country than to white borrowers who posed the same credit risk. It also steered more than 10,000 minority borrowers into costly subprime mortgages when white borrowers with similar credit profiles received prime loans, the department said.
Ah the post-racial society.
Strangely
"The Markets" aren't too thrilled about the giving of piles of free money to people who like to set those piles on fire.
We Did It Because We Loved Them Very Much
The easy point is that Tom Friedman is full of shit. More charitably (not really) is that no one can really remember why they supported the Iraq war because there were 300 competing reasons that didn't make any sense.
Even If You Save The Institutions
You can give the people who run then 5 minutes to collect their belongings and then escort them out of the building. It might not completely solve the problem of bad banks, but it at least solves the problem of bad bank managers.
SUPERTRAINS
I guess that's something.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Operators ran the first train down Afghanistan's first major railroad Wednesday, clearing the way for a long-awaited service from the northern border that should speed up the U.S. military's crucial supply flow and become a hub for future trade.
Maybe Do Something Good?
Going back to that article about how all the banksters have a sad face, it's worth remembering the last time people decided the rich assholes were destroying the country some of them decided to buy their reputations back by doing a few good works and building a few useful monuments. This generation has decided that their noblesse oblige leads them to advocate for higher taxes on poor people.
More Free Money For Banksters
So they can light it on fire.
It isn't that it's necessarily wrong, it's that rich assholes are having their absurd salaries maintained by the free money bazooka while everybody else is being asked to suck on it. In the name of the market! And after they light this pile of money they'll have another "liquidity event," otherwise known as not having enough money to pay your bills, and the free money bazooka will come out again.
FRANKFURT, Germany — The European Central Bank loaned a massive €489 billion ($639 billion) to 523 banks for an exceptionally long period of three years in an effort to steady a financial system under pressure from the eurozone debt crisis.
It isn't that it's necessarily wrong, it's that rich assholes are having their absurd salaries maintained by the free money bazooka while everybody else is being asked to suck on it. In the name of the market! And after they light this pile of money they'll have another "liquidity event," otherwise known as not having enough money to pay your bills, and the free money bazooka will come out again.
'Tis the Season
If you at all can, do something for our pal Strange from Rumproast. In our Exceptional America, you're always a bit of bad luck away from disaster, unless you are unfathomably wealthy.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
What It Says
I'm reasonably sure we wouldn't be sending drones over, say, Stockholm to kill terrorist cells with surgical precision while accidentally oopsie killing a couple of thousand other people.
But we apparently do that some places.
But we apparently do that some places.
Nominal Illusion And Assholes
Regularly you get people bitching about the "high" salaries of teachers, bus drivers, whoever. Often I punch these "high" salaries into ye olde CPI calculator to see their equivalent in the year I graduated college, 1993. My memory - and it could be faulty - is that at that time getting an entry level job of about $30,000 was about the low end of "good." It wasn't awesome, but it was slightly better than merely ok, and a reasonable expectation for someone who did pretty well in college in "sensible" degree programs. $24,000 was on the crap end and $40,000 was more in the "hit the lottery" range. I went to a second tier state college, so we aren't talking the expectations of the extremely privileged here.
$30,000 in 1993 money is worth $47,000 today.
$30,000 in 1993 money is worth $47,000 today.
The Problem With Charity
I think making people aware of better ways of helping charities is good, but there are some things to remember. First is that there is a problem with giving money in that it gets eaten up in salaries and overhead, and people know that their can of whatever is much more likely to get into the hands of someone who could use it than a random $10 check they mail in. Charities of course need to cover salaries and overhead, but small givers prefer the idea that their money is going directly to where it needs to go. Second is that...well...if someone's going to eat your not quite yet expired package of whatever that's been sitting in the back of your cupboard then they probably really need it.
Having said that, charities that provide food for people should educate donors on the best way to donate. They should be transparent, they should raise their salaries and overhead money in other ways, and explain specifically just what a $10 check will be used for. As in, please bring your can of whatever, but also know that with just $10 we can and will buy 100 cans.
Having said that, charities that provide food for people should educate donors on the best way to donate. They should be transparent, they should raise their salaries and overhead money in other ways, and explain specifically just what a $10 check will be used for. As in, please bring your can of whatever, but also know that with just $10 we can and will buy 100 cans.
Propose It
I'm perfectly aware that nothing much useful will get through this congress. I'm also aware that this provides an opportunity for cynical politicians to propose things they know won't pass. Like, you know, free ponies for everyone or a financial transactions tax.
I Suppose This Might Make A Few People Angry
What the fuck are we doing.
I'm sure they were all "bad."
Yet in carrying out hundreds of strikes over three years — resulting in an estimated 1,350 to 2,250 deaths in Pakistan — it has provided virtually no details to support those assertions.
I'm sure they were all "bad."
Monday, December 19, 2011
amirite?
I'd like some more commentary on my general point, that non-right wing nutcase economists have been too soft on the right wing nutcase economists.
My observation from when I was in that world was that... most (majority, not supermajority) economists were probably DeLongish Democrats. More than people would think, anyway. But there was a bias against left-leaning (mostly center left-leaning) economists ever piping up in public, even if that was the prevailing sentiment. It was really kind of weird.
My observation from when I was in that world was that... most (majority, not supermajority) economists were probably DeLongish Democrats. More than people would think, anyway. But there was a bias against left-leaning (mostly center left-leaning) economists ever piping up in public, even if that was the prevailing sentiment. It was really kind of weird.
I Suppose We'll Have To Reinvade
To save Iraqis from the Iraq we gave them.
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government was thrown into crisis on Monday night as authorities issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni vice president, accusing him of running a personal death squad that assassinated security officials and government bureaucrats.
Nuts Begetting Nuts
I wondered aloud on the twitter if Kim Jong-il was indeed as nutty as he was generally portrayed. The answer seems to be yes. Anyway, that doesn't bode very well for the new kid, growing up under the full crazy.
The Great Grift
I'm not a super sophisticated political reporter, but it occurs to me that candidates who don't try very hard to get themselves on ballots in a timely fashion might not be all that serious about what they're doing.
Hey Here's A Fresh New Idea
Which will certainly work.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports that Rajoy is planning to cut spending across the board, and only pension payouts will rise in the coming year. His plans include the reduction of public debt to 60% by 2020 from as much as 69% next year, according to Dow Jones. He also advocates a plan to privatize segments of the public sector.
Wakey, Wakey
Here's a satellite picture of the Korean Peninsula at night. North Korea has some catching up to do. With the death of Kim Jong Il, maybe they'll have the opportunity.
h/t notaboomer
For a glimpse into the daily grind in North Korea I recommend Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick.
h/t notaboomer
For a glimpse into the daily grind in North Korea I recommend Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Ancient History
The post-9/11 Iraq war runup era was completely fucked up in a way which will be hard to explain to anyone who didn't live through it, but at least there was a degree of justification for insanity. Not how the insanity played out, but that people were insane. But in the 90s people were driven insane by a blowjob. Unless you can subject people to thousands of hours of cable news, showing both the bobbleheads and the politicians, there really is no way to communicate what happened in that era.
Divided
The issues aren't exactly the same for high school students, but when I taught college I really thought the existence of barriers that prevented professors from interacting honestly with their students were a shame. Those barriers took various forms and had various premises. One is the age of legal alcohol consumption. I'm not looking for a return to Animal House era 'get stoned with your prof' parties, but the students drink when they have parties, and professors drink when they have parties, so there's an artificiality about any social activity when they mix. Everyone knows everybody else is just pretending, that it's a fake social event.
Two is the real but overblown fear of inappropriate relationships. Yes professor-student relationships are at best dumb, and of course at worst much worse than dumb, but if you allow professors and students to interact as adults, such things are possible. So there's a tendency not to interact as adults.
Three is the general increase in the degree to which college students as seen as and treated like kids. Unless they break the law, of course.
Anyway, the point is that there's a price to erecting barriers which prevent interaction between teachers and students.
Two is the real but overblown fear of inappropriate relationships. Yes professor-student relationships are at best dumb, and of course at worst much worse than dumb, but if you allow professors and students to interact as adults, such things are possible. So there's a tendency not to interact as adults.
Three is the general increase in the degree to which college students as seen as and treated like kids. Unless they break the law, of course.
Anyway, the point is that there's a price to erecting barriers which prevent interaction between teachers and students.
All Those Liberal Judges
Aside from the obvious "funny" of Newt auditioning for malevolent dictator, it's not as if liberals spend their time these days waiting for awesome liberal judges to do good things. Because, you know, over the past 31 years we've had 20 years of Republican presidencies and 11 years of Democrats.
Hey Where'd That Football Go
And on and on.
WASHINGTON — A day after the Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation to extend a payroll tax cut for two months, House Republicans made clear Sunday that they would not support the measure.
Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit
It didn't/doesn't have to be this way. This is what we've decided.
But we do so love our children in this country.
Like a silent epidemic, the number of homeless children in Michigan schools is growing.
In the 2010-11 school year, more than 31,000 homeless students attended school -- 8,500 more than in the previous school year, a 37% spike attributed to the weak economy, loss of jobs and the foreclosure crisis. Overall, the number of homeless students in Michigan has jumped more than 300% in the last four years. Most experts say those numbers are low because many parents are embarrassed to admit they are homeless. And many school districts lack the resources to identify these kids, as required by federal law.
But we do so love our children in this country.
So, Uh
If these guys can steal your money fair and square it's probably best to not do business with them.
Sunday Bobbleheads
This Week has Paul Ryan, Barney Frank, George Will, and Robert Reich.
Face the Nation has NEWT.
Meet the Press has Boehner, Bachmann, and Haley.
If it's Sunday...
Face the Nation has NEWT.
Meet the Press has Boehner, Bachmann, and Haley.
If it's Sunday...
Um, The Joke Is?
A good example of how Milbank doesn't really understand how to employ humor either to be funny or make an argument.
But Jeebus are drivers really getting that bad? Glad I don't drive much...
But Jeebus are drivers really getting that bad? Glad I don't drive much...
Saturday, December 17, 2011
And Then Maybe Painted By M.C. Escher
I remain cautiously optimistic that the ACA will offer a modest improvement in our fucked up health care system, but any attempt to explain how it's actually going to "work" makes clear that it's a Rube Goldberg machine fashioned out of Rube Goldberg machines.
And The Next Generation?
If the boomers have it bad, what about the next crop?
Not playing generational warfare here, just...things haven't gotten better. Some of those people at least remember what a defined benefit pension is. Need some, dare I say it, change.
Not playing generational warfare here, just...things haven't gotten better. Some of those people at least remember what a defined benefit pension is. Need some, dare I say it, change.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit
Nothing new here, just the usual. Every "serious" solution to our problems involves shoving free money down the gullets of the people who caused all the problems. We screech about family values and our awesome values as numerous kids live in poverty. And, no, having a teevee doesn't make them not poor.
Trends have been bad in this country for thirty years, arrested briefly by the internet bubble (which had some genuine boom aspects to it) and then the housing bubble. We shouldn't need a bubble for a bit of the additional income generated to trickle down to people who don't own private jets.
Trends have been bad in this country for thirty years, arrested briefly by the internet bubble (which had some genuine boom aspects to it) and then the housing bubble. We shouldn't need a bubble for a bit of the additional income generated to trickle down to people who don't own private jets.
Theoretically
So, theoretically (yes, not currently legally, but theoretically), the ECB could lend money to member states for cheap and we wouldn't be worried that high interest rates would increase the likelihood of default. Because they would be getting cheap money at rates set by the bank. That wouldn't be any fun, and more importantly it wouldn't involve handing over giant amounts of free money to the banksters, so what would be more fun is lending money for free to the rich banks and lettting them pocket the massive risk premium by lending the money to the countries at high rates. Of course the massive risk premium is there because... well, who knows, because we've all agreed not to let them default.
As usual, everything's coming up bankster. Poor people and middle class people will suffer with more austerity, while the banksters get subsidized profits. Huzzah!
That's because the European Central Bank may have already introduced roundabout measures that will solve some of Europe's big problems—it's making investing in peripheral sovereign debt a huge profit opportunity for banks.
Theoretically, financial institutions will be able coin money by borrowing ultra-cheap from the ECB and buying higher yielding sovereign debt.
As usual, everything's coming up bankster. Poor people and middle class people will suffer with more austerity, while the banksters get subsidized profits. Huzzah!
Maybe With Magic
The other guys suck but we won't really do anything different isn't really a compelling election narrative.
Mr Miliband has warned his party that its goal of social justice will have to be achieved by other means, that there will be no return to the "Blair-Brown era" of ever-higher public spending. Miliband allies dismiss the latest Labour grumbling, saying that in the long run one good joke by Mr Cameron will matter a lot less than the Prime Minister's flawed judgment on the economy and Europe.A very familiar one, however.
Precisely
The powers that be are bleeding the patient and then asking for another blood donation.
"We have an atomic bomb that we can use in the face of the Germans and the French: this atomic bomb is simply that we won't pay," said Pedro Nuno Santos, vice-president of the Socialist Party in the parliament.
"Debt is our only weapon and we must use it to impose better conditions, because recession itself is what is stopping us complying with the (EU-IMF Troika) accord. We should make the legs of the German bankers tremble," he said.
They Just Stole The Money
I'm sure nobody important will be held responsible.
And it seems we'll be running with the "I was told it was legal so it's not my fault" defense.
Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- MF Global Holdings Ltd. used about $700 million of customer funds to “meet liquidity issues” in the days prior to its bankruptcy, according to CME Group Inc., which had auditing authority over the failed futures broker.
CME Group detailed its dealings with MF Global in documents released yesterday by the oversight panel of the House Financial Services Committee. Christine Serwinski, chief financial officer for North America at MF Global, and Edith O’Brien, a treasurer, told Mike Procajlo, an exchange auditor, at around 1 a.m. on Oct. 31 in Serwinski’s Chicago office that the customer money was transferred on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28 and possibly Oct. 26, according to a CME Group timeline.
And it seems we'll be running with the "I was told it was legal so it's not my fault" defense.
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd., told lawmakers today that the firm’s back-office staff “explicitly” informed him that funds transfers made before the company filed for bankruptcy were legal.
By Who?
Ireland was only held up as a role model by stupid people and plutocrats. The unemployment rate is 14.5%!!!
DUBLIN, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Ireland's economy contracted by 1.9 percent in the third quarter, far worse than expected, as global economic turmoil dented export growth, raising the stakes for its fiscal and debt targets under an EU-IMF bailout.
...
Held up as a role model for other indebted euro zone nations, deteriorating prospects for Irish growth threaten to undermine its efforts to become the first country to emerge from an EU-IMF bailout in 2013.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
That Would Have Solved Everything!
I'm so old I remember when it was a fun pundit parlor game to imagine What If Serious New President Obama were to "think outside the box" and give Mitt Romney a cabinet gig.
Poor Black People Get All The Good Stuff
The Daily Show deftly shows how Newt segues effortlessly from poor people to lazy black poor people.
Obviously one effect of equating poor people with black people is to promote stereotypes, but the other thing it does is suggest to poor white people (they exist!) that all the government focus is on strapping young bucks who get the free Cadillacs.
Obviously one effect of equating poor people with black people is to promote stereotypes, but the other thing it does is suggest to poor white people (they exist!) that all the government focus is on strapping young bucks who get the free Cadillacs.
Urban Sports Bar Theme Park
"Something" is better than "nothing" near the stadiums, but it's hard to see how this type of thing will really attract any significant business when there aren't games on. With four (main) sports that's not a trivial number of game days, but...
Make The Pie Higher
We're basically in an extraction economy right now, where the real money is in finding points to siphon off all of the income that people generate. Unregulated utility monopolies, rapacious health insurance companies and the medical industry generally, and of course Big Finance, are all devoted to increasing the slice of your life that they can steal from you, fair and square.
We have a hell of a lot of poor people in a country where it's really hard and really expensive to be poor, and getting harder and more expensive every day.
We have a hell of a lot of poor people in a country where it's really hard and really expensive to be poor, and getting harder and more expensive every day.
The Greatest Country In The World
Our Galtian Overlords are going to have to come to terms with our reality.
WASHINGTON - Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.
Baby Steps
I imagine there will be a few more shit sandwiches to eat before the end of the year, but here's something.
The Obama administration will propose new regulations on Thursday to give the nation’s roughly two million home-care workers minimum wage and overtime protections after those workers had long been exempted from coverage, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
At Least The War Is Over
Sort of, anyway.
After all these years I still have no idea what it was all about.
Even at the time conservatives would occasionally admit that the WMD rationale was horseshit. It was as if each had their own individual Great Game reason for it. There were as many reasons for the Iraq war as there were supporters of it.
I suppose, ultimately, it came down to blowing up brown people and pissing off liberals. So it was quite a success, really.
After all these years I still have no idea what it was all about.
Even at the time conservatives would occasionally admit that the WMD rationale was horseshit. It was as if each had their own individual Great Game reason for it. There were as many reasons for the Iraq war as there were supporters of it.
I suppose, ultimately, it came down to blowing up brown people and pissing off liberals. So it was quite a success, really.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Tom Friedman's War
They all sucked on it.
But the accounts are just as striking for what they reveal about the extraordinary strains on the soldiers who were assigned here, their frustrations and their frequently painful encounters with a population they did not understand. In their own words, the report documents the dehumanizing nature of this war, where Marines came to view 20 dead civilians as not “remarkable,” but as routine.
Iraqi civilians were being killed all the time. Maj. Gen. Steve Johnson, the commander of American forces in Anbar Province, in his own testimony, described it as “a cost of doing business.”
Waiting For The Revelation
Did MF Global steal money from their customers legally or illegally?
I'm almost hoping the answer is "legally." Would get it all out into the open.
I'm almost hoping the answer is "legally." Would get it all out into the open.
Simple Ideas
I became a smarter person when I understood that "good advice" about how to avoid campus date rape (and all rape) was, whatever its intention, ultimately victim blaming and social control of women through another means. The bits which aren't common sense amount to "don't ever be alone with a man, and if you ever are you're doing something wrong."
Republican Wonks
Such creatures exist, but it's important to realize that their purpose, aside from the usual taxcutsandkillwelfarestatebutfreemoneyforrichpeople agenda, isn't to come up with conservative means to achieve somewhat liberal ends, their purpose is to derail any attempt to achieve liberal ends. They don't want their crappy health care plan to pass, it just exists so they can propose a "serious" alternative and then regretfully torpedo the more liberal alternative.
Obama passed their plan, and they responded by deciding he was worse than Hitler.
Obama passed their plan, and they responded by deciding he was worse than Hitler.
Those Highways Don't Carry As Many People As You Think They Do
You see a lot of apples-to-bushels-of-apples comparisons with mass transit and roads. Often the ridership of a single line is compared to the ridership of the entire local road network. You know, "this will only be used by 1% of the population!" kinds of statements. Shiny new highways are seen as benefiting everyone locally, even if daily ridership isn't actually that high.
Might Not Be Such A Bad Idea
I still lean towards keeping the state liquor system, though improving it, but preserving their monopoly on actual liquor while letting other retailers sell wine might not be such a bad path. It would probably be the first step in killing the system, but at least it would wither much more slowly.
Dream A Little Dream
What's truly bizarre right now is that we're simultaneously the richest most awesomest country in the history of the universe yet at the same time we can't afford to fix any potholes. We really need a bit of "mars, bitches!" attitude from our leaders. You know, we can do this.
Cuts
Just to make a rather obvious point, government spending cuts aren't just about cutting the Free Cadillacs For Strapping Young Bucks programs that all nations have, but are about, you know, cutting jobs.
I don't know why people think cutting jobs in a recession is a good idea, but they do!
I don't know why people think cutting jobs in a recession is a good idea, but they do!
Who's In Charge
Numerous citizens being wrongfully held for extended periods of time because their citizenship claims weren't believed should be a tremendous scandal.
The Obvious Solution Is
You know.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless rate was 8.3%, up from 7.9% in the previous quarter.
Youth unemployment rose to 1.027 million, the highest since records began in 1992, beating the previous record set only last month.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
I've Been An Illegal
At least, I think I was. Actually I suppose I was legally a resident, but was illegally an employee. I was never quite sure. Anyway the point is... it's easy to overstay a visa. It's easy to do your best to comply with immigration laws and have the bureaucracy fail you. That anyone who is relatively well-traveled would not understand that calling someone 'illegal' was both a pejorative and demonstrated a lack of understanding of the issues... well, I guess it's our current reality.
Sgt. Schulz Runs The World
Apparently the indispensable Masters of the Universe who are paid zillions for their brilliance and competence managed to lose $1.2 billion.
And they're still walking freely with every newspaper article about them printing some version of "They have not been accused of any wrongdoing."
um
And they're still walking freely with every newspaper article about them printing some version of "They have not been accused of any wrongdoing."
um
Too Cheap
At those prices I'm not surprised. Even the expensive (and it's expensive because it's in places with high demand) on street parking is probably cheap relative to lot/garage alternatives. If you want to price it high enough that there are always spaces available, you're going to have to raise the price even more.
Save Community
I know some people haven't seen a good TV show since 1957, but Community is pretty damn good.
Not Actually Declining
This isn't about anything specific, but in stories about urban American there's generally an underlying narrative about urban America that its problems are the problem of decline. And of course that's true of plenty of cities (and small cities and towns and rural areas), but it isn't universally true. It's true that most inner cities face the familiar decades-old problems, as the effects of decades of decline haven't been magically fixed overnight, but the 'fixes' for these problems are a bit different in a place with a potential for growth (population, economic) than in places without that potential.
License To Steal
My first thought when I heard about the natural gas discoveries in PA was, "uh oh, we're fucked."
In what is shaping up as a key victory for the shale-gas industry, Gov. Corbett and the legislature appear close to stripping municipalities of the power to impose tough local restrictions on wells and pipelines. Under a pending measure, wells and pipelines would be permitted in every zoning district - even residential ones - statewide.
And the industry isn't stopping there.
Two pipeline companies are seeking the clout of eminent domain. While the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has yet to rule, it signaled this year that it was leaning toward giving firms condemnation power to gain rights-of-way for their pipelines.
Suck. On. It.
The way the carcass of MF Global, led by Louis Freeh, is going to deal with the people it stole from should be a warning to everyone. Your money is not safe with these firms.
So they stole a bunch of money, but another pot of money can't possibly be customer money, so suck on it customers.
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- MF Global Holdings Ltd.’s $25.3 million in cash held at JPMorgan Chase & Co. is presumed to be its own, the bankrupt company’s Chapter 11 trustee said in response to customer objections to its bid to use the money.
MF Global Holdings should be allowed to use the cash collateral of JPMorgan, trustee Louis J. Freeh said in papers filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Customers of the company’s failed brokerage, MF Global Inc., had asserted that the money may have been part of the $1.2 billion believed to be missing from their segregated accounts.
“The customers have failed to provide this court with any actual evidence in support of their position,” Freeh said in court papers. MF Global Holdings owns the New York-based bank account with JPMorgan, and under New York law, it is presumed that funds deposited in an account belong to the account holder, the trustee said.
So they stole a bunch of money, but another pot of money can't possibly be customer money, so suck on it customers.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Can Somebody Hand Me The Keys To A Professional Sports Team?
I know nothing about running a big business, but I'm pretty sure I could (especially) run a major market team without major financial troubles. Also, too, minor market.
THINK OF THE POOR DOWNTRODDEN RICH
Oh Lord, who commissioned this one.
WASHINGTON—Hold the condolence cards, but the recession cost the rich.
The share of income received by the top 1 percent—that potent symbol of inequality — dropped to 17 percent in 2009 from 23 percent in 2007, according to federal tax data. Within the group, average income fell by about a third, to $957,000 in 2009 from $1.4 million in 2007.
Analysts say the drop largely reflects the stock market plunge, and most think top incomes recovered somewhat in 2010, as Wall Street rebounded and corporate profits grew. Still, the drop alters a figure often emphasized by inequality critics, and it has gone largely unnoticed outside the blogosphere.
I Dream Of A Bieberless Future
The amazing thing, actually, is that thus far Congress hasn't been too bad on intertube legislation, at least in terms of content-related issues. That could change.
And, no, the existing big firms won't be shut down. It'll be a tool to shut down startups and troublemakers.
And, no, the existing big firms won't be shut down. It'll be a tool to shut down startups and troublemakers.
Afternoon Thread
I guess I should be honest with the troops. Christmas is likely to happen again this year. Once again we will have failed to carry out the wishes of the dark lord, Soros.
Rest and regroup for next year's War On Christmas! Fox usually announces its beginning in June or so.
Rest and regroup for next year's War On Christmas! Fox usually announces its beginning in June or so.
The Game
I have a bunch of loans that are shit. You have a bunch of loans that are shit. They're stinking things up. Here's the cunning plan. You can insure my loans. I can insure your loans. Suddenly the risk is gone! Except it isn't, because you can't possibly afford to pay off on your insurance policies, and I certainly can't either, especially as the event that would trigger the insurance claims would mean that we're all destitute anyway. Such a system our Galtian Overlords have created!
Hey, at least this one gave out a big tip.
Still an asshole though:
Dozens of banks across Europe have sold large quantities of insurance to other banks and investors that protects against the risk of ailing countries defaulting on their debts, the latest illustration of the extensive financial entanglements among the continent's banks and governments.
Hey, at least this one gave out a big tip.
The City worker, who has not been named, is said to have bought a £1,860 bottle of vodka for all 24 tables at Rose in Marylebone.
The man, who was joined by nine friends at his table, also left a £10,000 tip on top of the £7,966 service charge on his bill for £71,000.60. The tip will be split between eight waitresses.
Still an asshole though:
"When the Ciroc Vodka came out, he began throwing £50 notes around. Dozens of girls began scrambling to pick them up off the floor."
So I'd Recommend Putting Your Money In Your Mattress
Certainly don't let the big boys play with it. There's been some question floating around about how MF Global might have stolen their clients' money legally.
If I understand this correctly, while they're supposed to keep customer money segregated, they can offer part of it up as collateral for other bets. If the bets go bad, the client is out of luck and there's nothing they can do about it. So, uh, not so segregated after all.
License to steal. Or, more, specifically, a license to gamble with your money without your permission, and they keep the winnings while you eat the losses.
Fuck yeah!
If I understand this correctly, while they're supposed to keep customer money segregated, they can offer part of it up as collateral for other bets. If the bets go bad, the client is out of luck and there's nothing they can do about it. So, uh, not so segregated after all.
License to steal. Or, more, specifically, a license to gamble with your money without your permission, and they keep the winnings while you eat the losses.
Fuck yeah!
Where The Car Can't Be King
Not every place in the country is going to be like Manhattan, and certainly not everybody wants to live in Manhattan, but it really is the case that New York City can't be New York City without a massive reasonably well-running subway system, along with all of the other elements of the transit system. There isn't room for all the cars. It's fine if a New Yorker like Cuomo never uses it and isn't personally into transit, but he should get that the city can't function in anything resembling its current form without it. Stop taking the money.
And Over There
Maybe one day I'll get over the fact that all of the Very Serious People thought doing this was a wonderful idea, and very few have any of it weighing on their consciences or have suffered any career harm because of it.
We'll never really acknowledge the hell we unleashed.
As many as 2 million Iraqis — nearly 6 percent of the country's estimated more than 31 million population — are thought to have been forced from the cities and towns where they once lived and are housed in circumstances that feel temporary and makeshift.
More than 500,000 of those are "squatters in slum areas with no assistance or legal right to the properties they occupy," according to Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy group. Most can't go home: Either their homes have been destroyed or hostile ethnic and sectarian groups now control their neighborhoods.
We'll never really acknowledge the hell we unleashed.
Actually A Serious Question
I'm reasonably sure that if I steal a bunch of money from a bank, and then given the money to someone else, once that person is informed that they've been given stolen money they're legally required to return it.
"A Romance With Risk"
If you're a rich guy addicted to gambling with other people's money it's romantic.
So will JP Morgan be allowed to keep stolen cash?
hahahaha
His obsession with trading was apparent to MF Global insiders over his 19-month tenure. Mr. Corzine compulsively traded for the firm on his BlackBerry during meetings, sometimes dashing out to check on the markets. And unusually for a chief executive, he became a core member of the group that traded using the firm’s money. His profits and losses appeared on a separate line in documents with his initials: JSC.
So will JP Morgan be allowed to keep stolen cash?
hahahaha
Perpetual Panic
I'm old enough to remember a time when the world, or at least the members of the world who bother their beautiful minds with this stuff, didn't wake up each day wondering if the financial system was going to completely collapse.
This has been going on for a few years now. Maybe something's wrong with the structure of the system?
This has been going on for a few years now. Maybe something's wrong with the structure of the system?
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Our media, not theirs
We'll have Culture of Truth and Dahlia Lithwick on Virtually Speaking on the hour. You can listen live or later here.
Signed,
Not Atrios
Signed,
Not Atrios
The Great Shirk
If we've gained one thing from the recent economic troubles, it's that more economists have finally come to understand that when the right wing economists asserted that there wasn't really any such thing as unemployment, just people choosing not to work, they actually meant it.
Assholes
I'm no fan of various aspects of the current state of air travel, but how much of a pampered asshole do you have to be to not understand that there are a few places where you just aren't allowed to be such assholes.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Face the Nation has Michele Bachmann and Steve King.
This Week has Huntsman.
Meet the Press has Ron Paul, Lindsey Graham, Gov. Branstad, and Dick Durbin.
Another week of the Republican reality show.
This Week has Huntsman.
Meet the Press has Ron Paul, Lindsey Graham, Gov. Branstad, and Dick Durbin.
Another week of the Republican reality show.
WON'T ANYBODY THINK OF THE POOR TRADERS?
And, yes, I know not all of these people are extremely rich but still...
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Random Thought
There are people who have the job of being political hacks. Of being assholes. I get that. I don't have a problem with these people. It's their jobs to argue for things based on what the politics is. I don't think they should be obeyed, but their existence doesn't bother me.
The problem isn't that people listen to political hacks, the problem is that they assume they're right. You know, "the politics of mortgage relief is bad" trumped "the politics of people being thrown out of their homes and the economy being horrible is bad" based on this kind of advice.
The point is, I get that the sociopaths are in the room. But don't necessarily obey them, and more than that...don't necessarily assume they really know what they're doing. They're sociopaths, after all.
The problem isn't that people listen to political hacks, the problem is that they assume they're right. You know, "the politics of mortgage relief is bad" trumped "the politics of people being thrown out of their homes and the economy being horrible is bad" based on this kind of advice.
The point is, I get that the sociopaths are in the room. But don't necessarily obey them, and more than that...don't necessarily assume they really know what they're doing. They're sociopaths, after all.
And Mr. Romney Will Only Visit The Zoo With Mr. Gingrich On Senior Discount Day
Michael Barbaro and Ashley Parker will probably have to kill themselves due to shame after this one.
..."Previously, she [Parker] worked as a researcher for Maureen Dowd, a Times columnist."
...
..."Previously, she [Parker] worked as a researcher for Maureen Dowd, a Times columnist."
...
"He [Barbaro] has chronicled Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s obsession with muscle cars, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn’s relationship with her father and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s weekend getaways to Bermuda — a hardship assignment that involved staying on the island for a week.
His time on the retail beat gave him a taste for fashion and an interest in raising the sartorial standards in the style-challenged Times newsroom."
Weekends Get A Bit Slower Every Week
Is the holiday season.
Just contemplating the hiring of Lanny Davis. Penn State must be confronting Hellraiser level of fuckedupedness.
Just contemplating the hiring of Lanny Davis. Penn State must be confronting Hellraiser level of fuckedupedness.
Not Even 50?
This basic question - at what age can you start leaving kids alone - seems to be one that people duck these days.
You have to leave them alone at some point, so they have time to find an adult to buy them some Plan B.
You have to leave them alone at some point, so they have time to find an adult to buy them some Plan B.
Players
If it were up to me, internet access would be treated as public infrastructure, like public roads. Failing that, I'd have the government provide some baseline service, like pulling optical fiber to every post office, and allowing local governments to use it for municipal wireless, to create competition with telcos. (I'd do the same with banking--a Fed ATM in every post office. Likewise, the public option.)
Of course, that's not on the table either.
What is on the table is "private sector" competition. And there is a ruckus going on about that right now in wireless broadband. There's a company trying to enter the national wireless market, LightSquared, that the telecoms would prefer not have enter.
They've got a good letter to Congress set up in support of more competition in the wireless broadband market.
Of course, that's not on the table either.
What is on the table is "private sector" competition. And there is a ruckus going on about that right now in wireless broadband. There's a company trying to enter the national wireless market, LightSquared, that the telecoms would prefer not have enter.
They've got a good letter to Congress set up in support of more competition in the wireless broadband market.
Friday, December 09, 2011
So You're Pretty Much Admitting A Vast Conspiracy Of Criminal Fraud?
I've got $20 on Ari Fleischer being the next hire.
What Will Piss Off Liberals The Most This Week?
I'm sure there are Republicans who really really want the Keystone Pipeline, but the reason to do this type of thing is to show that you are willing to piss off liberals.
Why Can't We Pay Them To Give Us Nice Things
It's not actually loopy lefty conspiracy theory to see that there are entrenched economic interests wedded to the government money firehose. I just haven't quite figured out why "how about you don't build quite as many missiles and in exchange we'll overpay you for the SUPERTRAIN contract" isn't an option.
Causing Confusion
David Cameron's action on the latest Eurocrap is causing a bit of confusion, as while his claimed reasons for it are stupid and not the kind of reasons lefties like, he's still quite correct to keep the UK out of all of that. Just for other reasons.
The Political Class
Sure, have a brokered convention where a bunch of delegates for the crazy candidates who actually ran try to agree on a new crazy candidate.
How It Works
So you lend money to states. There's a risk premium, sometimes sometimes large. You buy insurance to reduce your risk and transmute everything to gold. But the people you buy the insurance from can't possibly pay. You aren't really buying insurance, you're buying the appearance of insurance. It doesn't matter, because no matter how much of a risk premium you were getting, there will never be a default. Because.
IMF Principles
Spelled out pretty clearly.
European Union leaders dropped their demand that investors share the cost of bailouts as Germany abandoned a campaign that helped deepen the two-year-old financial crisis.
Limiting so-called private-sector involvement to the terms accepted in International Monetary Fund bailouts was part of a package agreed upon in Brussels early today as leaders met to forge tighter economic bonds to stem the crisis.
“As regards private-sector involvement, we have made a major change in our doctrine: from now on we will strictly adhere to the IMF principles and doctrines,” EU President Herman Van Rompuy told reporters at a briefing. “Or, to put it more bluntly, our first approach to PSI, which had a very negative effect on debt markets is now officially over.”
Look Forward
I actually paid about zero attention to the whole Blago case and have no opinion about any of the details, but it seems tribal allegiance is strong.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Lonely
Not my area of knowledge, and the point applies to more than our future clone overlords, but animals are much more social than we tend to acknowledge. We get that our pets need us, but other animals need community too.
Mysteries
I get that neighborhood parking concerns are real, but could someone please explain that if you do this the impact is to replace four public parking spots with four private ones? That makes that neighborhood parking situation worse, not better.
The Parent Trap
This is one of those subjects which tends to inspire a bit of "you're not a parent so you don't understand." Which I sympathize with, some, but not when it comes attached to some barely disguised version of "Daddy can't handle the thought of his darling daughter having sex."
Teens are going to have sex. Many of them are having sex a much younger age than people like to imagine. I'm not sure why. People started having sex pretty early when I was a teen, and they probably did when you were teens too. Lots of 9th and 10th graders have sex. So, uh, deal with it.
Teens are going to have sex. Many of them are having sex a much younger age than people like to imagine. I'm not sure why. People started having sex pretty early when I was a teen, and they probably did when you were teens too. Lots of 9th and 10th graders have sex. So, uh, deal with it.
Does It Matter Much?
It's actually a serious question. With the magic 60 vote threshold for anything, does it matter much if we have 52 Dem senators or 48?
Fresh Thread
Busy with some things. Keep me me informed about any new exciting plans to give rich people free money over the next hour or two.
Operation Blame Yurp
It's amazing how frequently these "private" comments appear in the paper.
Obviously at the moment any negative shock to the economy would be bad, but... our problems are not the fault of Yurp. It is not "the single most important factor that will determine Mr. Obama’s re-election chances."
Publicly, Obama administration officials talk only about the economic consequences of a potential debt conflagration in Europe. Privately, though, they are well aware that Europe’s success in dealing with the troubles — and the administration’s success in persuading them to do so — is arguably the single most important factor that will determine Mr. Obama’s re-election chances.
Obviously at the moment any negative shock to the economy would be bad, but... our problems are not the fault of Yurp. It is not "the single most important factor that will determine Mr. Obama’s re-election chances."
The Free Money Bazooka Is Once Again Aimed At The Banksters
So the ECB is going to lend massive amounts of money to banks, with "relaxed collateral requirements."
More free money for them, austerity and poverty for everybody else.
More free money for them, austerity and poverty for everybody else.
I Thought Scott Brown Was Immortal
Oh well.
Warren leads Brown by a 49-42 percent margin, outside the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points. That number includes voters who say they are "leaning" for either candidate. But even without the "leaners," Warren still leads by a 46-41 percent margin, barely within the margin of error.
Information Is Good
But even with perfect information, congestion is still an unpriced externality. Better information can lead to people making smarter travel choices, but that's less about regular traffic and more about random events (accidents, etc.).
Good Morning
Several interesting posts up at Echidne's place.
More on Newt Gingrich And The Forced Birthers
Laura Nyro
Sexist rant from Alec Baldwin (by Suzie)
Plan B Stays Prescription Only For Young Teenagers
More on Newt Gingrich And The Forced Birthers
Laura Nyro
Sexist rant from Alec Baldwin (by Suzie)
Plan B Stays Prescription Only For Young Teenagers
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Shocking
Or, you know, not.
The newspaper says its undercover reporters went to 13 meetings organised by exam boards used by English schools.
It alleges that teachers, who paid up to £200 a day to attend, were "routinely" given information about future exams, including questions, syllabus areas to focus on and even the specific words or facts students must use to win marks.
Uh, No
First, you're a tremendous whiny asshole whose business would have been destroyed if the free money bazooka wasn't pointed at you.
Second, no your top marginal tax rate is not 39.6%. It 35%. Ok, add a bit for Medicare, which still doesn't get you all the way to 39.6%, which was the rate pre-Bush tax cuts.
Third could somebody at the AP have pointed out the error?
Fourth, a big chunk of your income is (presumably) not wage income, so you're paying less.
"Most of us wage earners are paying 39.6 percent in taxes and add in another 12 percent in New York state and city taxes and we're paying 50 percent of our income in taxes," Dimon said in defense of his fellow Wall Street bankers.
Second, no your top marginal tax rate is not 39.6%. It 35%. Ok, add a bit for Medicare, which still doesn't get you all the way to 39.6%, which was the rate pre-Bush tax cuts.
Third could somebody at the AP have pointed out the error?
Fourth, a big chunk of your income is (presumably) not wage income, so you're paying less.
Random Tom Friedman Bashing
He is the world's most serious person.
If this blog has made one contribution to the world, it was (thanks to tip from a commenter) making it aware of the "Suck On This" rationale for the Iraq war.
If this blog has made one contribution to the world, it was (thanks to tip from a commenter) making it aware of the "Suck On This" rationale for the Iraq war.
Hurray, More Abortions!
from nytimes.com:
BREAKING NEWS12:42 PM ET
U.S. Keeps Restrictions on Sale of Morning-After Pill
A Bank Next To Every Starbucks
While the decline of bank branches has been predicted forever, it never really happened. It's why I don't buy claims that banks don't care about small depositors, people who deposit their paychecks every month and spend them. They do care. They might care, in part, because they try to soak them with fees. But even without the fees they care. There aren't all that many large depositors, after all. There aren't that many in the 1%.
Crazy Ideas That Are Of Course Completely Sensible And Should Happen
Medicare eligibility at 62, Medicare buy in at 55, temporary lowering of full benefits Social Security eligibility to 62.
These things won't happen, but, hey, it's campaign season. Proposals are free!
These things won't happen, but, hey, it's campaign season. Proposals are free!
The Obvious Thing To Do
Oh, you know.
The UK's industrial output fell 0.7% in October, its fastest fall for six months, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
Compared with the same month in 2010, output was 1.7% lower, the biggest annual fall since April.
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