JournOList still troubles some reporters, and Chuck Todd too

First, I remember seeing NBC's current White House chief correspondent on Russert the first time and asking "Who the hell is THAT guy?" He was their connection to the blogosphere, the semi-dark world of the InterWeb. That was the big new thing, and Mr. Todd was their guru.

Now he's complaining that The Right is using the secret JournOList (O for Obama) to smear journalists in general.

The funny part of his quote is where he refers to himself as a real journalist. No disrespect, but Mr. Todd, you're not qualified to take notes for a "real" journalist. When I find out different, I'll update this blog listing. You worked some with Mr. Russert -- think hard -- are you really a "real" journalist?

JournOList, by the way, was a way for journalists to secretly control the news during the campaign, and to make sure that Obama got favoritism in the media. Shocked? Don't be. The shocking part is that nobody is really concerned about it or reporting it, they've moved on to the Wikileaks thing.

Yawn.

TARP-CPP strikes! Treasury may appoint directors to bank boards!

We knew it could happen (I discussed it in class the other night).

For banks that received TARP money under the Capital Purchase Program, Treasury can appoint 2 board members if the bank is in arrears with their preferred dividends.

"It will never be necessary" pundits said, back when it passed.

Sure.

George Orwell was right, and this is a small step toward Big Brother-dom.

SEC exempt from FOIA. OMG.

SEC is saying today that they are exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests (FOIA) because of the new financial reform legislation that was signed last week.

Looks like another one of those Pelosi-isms: we've got to pass the legislation so we can see what's in it.

OMG Baby Tees launched today in 15 minutes

OK, shameless plug for my CafePress store, OMG Baby Tees, that I just set up. I also Facebooked it.

It took 15 minutes to set up.

I'll add designs as folks send me new ones, but I'm trying to stick to initials or leet, and avoid outright words.

We might add a line for famous quotations down the road. We'll see. Dr. Williams and I have come up with some good ones for that.

Update:
There's a limit on the number of free designs per site, so I set up OMG Adult Tees and OMG Kids Tees too. Some things just need to be said.

UPDATE & WARNING:

CafePress just seems to DELETE your free (basic) pages at random, so be sure to write down or copy the pics of your designs when you do them. OMG Kid Tees is gone right now, maybe I'll get it back up soon.

In the meantime, I've also started on OMG Tees for Everyone and OMG Tees for All by Doc Finance, just in case the others are deleted (accidently).

iPad owners are selfish elites, on Wired

Sounds like someone has iPad envy. Me too, but it doesn't make me judgemental.

Hey, even musicians can understand video games

Whatever else he stands for, and that's probably not much, John Mayer has a good take on the original HALO. Perfect balance, just update the maps. In-person versus only.

It's the simple things in life that get us through, but for the life of me I've never understood how the first game got it right and the sequels were so bad. Shows how intellectual property can be corrupted so easily.

The life of a professional cheater, from Salon.com

Cash for Essays!!!!

We all know it happens. Salon has a piece today written by someone who purports to do it for a living these days.

Wow, what a great idea! I could take exams for people and make money! Except that it's like, immoral and illegal. And it gets THE OTHER PEOPLE thrown out of school, and not this lady.

Interesting read, nonetheless.

AZ eases restriction on concealed weapons carry

On Thursday, Arizona will remove the restriction that requires folks carrying guns to have them in the open. In other words, you can carry in AZ without a concealed handgun permit.

Here's a terrific business opportunity for folks in AZ -- teaching people how to use their guns, and selling guns to folks who want to conceal them.

I really love the idea of more freedom of personal protection, but I hope that folks will get some formal training before they just stick a gun in their pocket. That's not something to mess around with. It's not rocket science, but I can think of plenty of folks who are dangerous with a pair of scissors.

Finally, I should mention this guy. "Responsible Journalists" always find this guy:

"Tucsonan Mark Reinl-Bautista said he fired guns as a child but prefers not to own one now. He said he is concerned about the presence of guns in the community in general.

"I don't know if it makes them (people who carry guns) feel safer," he said, "but it doesn't make me feel safer."

As I've mentioned here before, regardless of whether he FEELS safer or not, it's obvious from the research that responsible private ownership makes things safer, on average. Ask folks in Haiti. Or New Orleans for that matter.

As for being "concerned about the presence of guns in the community in general": they are already there, Sparky. There are people in line with you at McDonalds packing heat; there are folks picking up their kids at your kids' schools who are packing heat. I'd bet there are people driving with you on the freeway packing heat. Just give up on that one.

There shouldn't be some terrible cost to protect oneself, and laws designed to outlaw "Saturday Night Specials" and expensive training requirements can cause outrageous expense. The law-abiding group of people who have the most to gain from cheap guns are those who live (must live) in high-crime areas, or areas in which crime is increasing over time. These folks can have a little peace of mind for a relatively low price: a shotgun in the corner behind the door is a wonderful way to ease one's mind. Ultimately, they are the ones for which we need to reduce the barriers to gun ownership.

Remember, criminals will always have guns. They will always have the advantage because most of us don't walk around trying to figure out ways to harm and steal from others. But if we can arm responsible, thoughtful people, we can make criminals wonder if there's a little old lady with a shotgun behind that door.

Or, as a couple of housebreakers in Houston found out last month, there might be a teenager with a rifle inside that empty-looking house. And he might be defending himself and his sister as his Dad taught him to. Brave young man. The tragedy is that it shouldn't have happened. This will stay with him the rest of his life, no doubt, but at least he and his sister are safe.

Cult of the Amateur, something to think about

It doesn't necessarily review well, but the topic of this book by Andrew Keen is something I think about all the time. On the Internet, everyone is an expert. On the Internet, anybody can start a blog and post anything they want to. In this generation, Wikipedia is "true enough" (another intriguing title). Without gatekeepers, there's far more noise than signal on the Web, and it may be having a backlash.

Something to think about.

Public option inevitable, says Sen. Reid

As if we didn't already know it, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently assured a group of liberal activists that

"We're going to have a public option," Reid said. "It's just a question of when."

Incrementalism (AKA the slippery slope, the camel's nose in the tent) at its ripe finest.

Just to help us understand the exact nature of the fantasy world some of our political types live in, he added

"Social Security is the most successful social program in the history of the world."

If by "successful" he means "the longest running incremental wealth transfer program ever conceived," then he might be on to something. As a replacement for private savings, I think he'd lose that argument.

HOW IS THIS RELEVANT:
Unfortunately, someone, somewhere is going to be taxed to pay for "the most successful" and the eventual public health care option. Business is always a convenient target. We don't need an economist to tell us that things are going to get bumpy, but I think a lot of these Washington-types don't get it, or don't care.

UPDATE:

Clinton nee Publius, a poster on the same blog (at the link about Social Security, near the bottom of the page) writes:

"The reality is that Social Security is already running deficits 12 years ahead of the most optimistic predictions of the operators of this Ponzi scheme and it is going to fail. The math cannot be made to work. People who paid into the plan and people who are paying into the plan now have been defrauded. They cannot raise tax rates high enough to sustain the scam because taxation is a limited activity that always creates economic destruction as its chief outcome. This means there is a practical limit. In the case of the Modern Era, any time the marginal tax rate exceeds 19% of GDP, the economy slides into a recession and the actual collection of receipts is reduced until the marginal rates are adjusted below the 19% rate. This is what happened at the end of the Clinton era when the rates reached approximately 21% of GDP and the resulting recession lasted until the Bush tax cuts took effect (interestingly enough, despite the so-called "conventional wisdom" that the Bush tax cuts "weren't paid for", the reality is that tax receipts reached record levels in the years following the cuts, thus completely sustaining my position and completely repudiating any credibility owing to liberal-progressive claims). This means they cannot tax their way out of the mess - there will never be enough tax revenue to sustain the program even if they eliminate all other discretionary spending - which we all know the liberal-progressives in the political class will never do because they give that money to their fellow Ponzi scheme co-conspirators."

Uh oh, Bernanke tells the truth. He's in for trouble now.

Just in time for the Sunday Show mosh-pit, Fed chair Ben Bernanke has stated publicly that it's the Fed's opinion that extending the Bush-era tax cuts would help the economy. They will otherwise expire on 12/31, in case you haven't heard.

UPDATE: Analysts are detailing predictions for Apocalypse, 7/29.

All kinds of things will change, none for the better.

Some real rocket scientists they've got up there, huh? Next they're going to tell us that uncertainly is at an all-time high. Wait, that was earlier this week.

Sunday morning should be interesting, because I'm betting the the common-taters are going to rip him to pieces. Paul Krugman is running 50 laps right now, I'd bet. Some of the usual talking head types are probably canceling all other plans and waiting with their cellphones in their hands for show producers to call.

I'm sure that we'll hear all about how tax cuts for "the wealthy" don't work, and how it's just more of the failed policies of the Bush administration. I mean haven't we had enough just enduring Mr. Bush's recession? (And haven't we heard THAT ONE too many times?)

On the other hand, this may be a signal that Democrats are trying to salvage something before the November elections. Some House Dems are making noises about leaving the cuts for "the middle-class" and only letting those that apply to "the rich" expire.

Whatever happens, it won't get going until AFTER the Dems get their butts handed to them. So this may be a feint that Congress never intends to actually act on. Wouldn't be the first time, would it?

As Bruce Campbell's Ash told us in Army of Darkness: "It's a trick; get an axe." He was talking about demonic possession, of course.

Just after the tax cuts were passed originally, Mr. Greenspan noted that the bond market had already impounded the effects of those cuts in long-term interest rates, as reflected in the yield curve. He was excoriated for being "political" even though he was just stating facts. HE PERSONALLY didn't change the market's expectations, he just reported them. Just the facts, M'am. Just like Joe Friday said.

Let's see if Mr. Bernanke is deemed a Right-Wing nutjob over this. Should be fun.

Shrinkage? Eeeevil WalMart is at it again! RFID for clothing!

Shrinkage.

The term recalls horrible memories of George Costanza's Hamptons outing on Seinfeld. In retail, though, shrinkage means "stuff that disappears from inventory without being paid for." Not that other thing.

Ahem.

WSJ is reporting today that WalMart has begun testing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems for inventory control (ie accounting) in its retail stores. To control shrinkage, and reordering (to prevent stock-outs, for the uninitiated), etc.

So of course some consumer "advocacy" group is making noise about how eeeevil that is. In this case it's Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering.

I bet their annual meeting is a hoot.

WalMart will track us by the tags in our clothing!!!! The Horror. Uh, only if you LEAVE THE TAGS ON YOUR CLOTHES. That's the only way they can track us. Be a rebel, take the tags off and throw them away.

Miss Minnie Pearl would be in trouble, for she always had the price tag on her hat. Wore it like a badge. God rest her soul.

Once again, this is likely going to give the anti-WalMart crowd something to make hay with. RFID is used all over the place, from hospitals to schools. And the retail applications are obvious. Here's a link to a sales brochure by AlienTechnology showing some of the uses WalMart might want to try.

There are far more terrible things to worry about these days than whether WalMart tracks their inventory with invisible radio "waves." Like the government takeover of everything -- let's keep our eyes on the ball, people.

UPDATE: AP takes this on, from USAToday. Sheeple run screaming for the hills because WalMart is going to use some new-fangled inventory management devices.

I wonder if this is the reaction that people had when somebody started using numbers for the first time. Or writing. Or a map. Did anyone get burned at the stake for having a map?

More info:

I found this on Snopes today and went to the CASPIAN website. These guys got started on the basic premise that loyalty cards are an invasion of privacy!

They have a website just to deal with the threat from RFID - spychips.com . I'm sorry, did I miss something? Are these going to implanted while we sleep?

Can't they just wear tin-foil hats to keep WalMart from reading their brain waves?

I mean, I'm the ORIGINAL paranoid freak, but this is nuts. It's just INVENTORY CONTROL folks. Judas Priest!

I can't help but think that somewhere in the background there's a union behind this group. Or more than one.

Credit card contracts are unreadable to many adults. Duh?

New survey results at creditcards.com finds that 4/5 of adults can't read the "legalese" in a credit card contract.

That CAN'T be true: we passed credit card reform legislation LAST February. In 2009. There must be some mistake.

Card contracts have evolved over time to contain a provision or clause about everything that might occur. No surprise.

Meaningful financial reform has to rely on meaningful financial education. Greenspan and Bernanke have both said this for years; the new reform bill has it in there.

And until people understand what they're signing, they shouldn't be allowed to sign anything.

By law if we have to.

So many of the complaints about "predatory lending" that made hay and caught CRA payoff money just before the latest crisis could have been avoided by some strong self-education requirements for borrowers. It's long overdue.

Health Care Reform Hits Home, Part 1 of many I'm sure

To everyone playing along at home on the status of health care reform:

Blue Cross decided, today, that they didn't need to cover Eric's cognitive behavioral therapy anymore. After doing so for 9 months. Poof.

We will, of course, retain an attorney. No choice.

We've had lots of encouragement over the past year, and Eric has made a lot of progress. He's been accelerating his learning pace, too, which is the best we could ever hope for. He's a happy, otherwise healthy little boy who's growing by leaps and bounds every day.

Our error, I guess, is that we're not ready to surrender to "the system" and just let them park him in his own little corner and forget about him. We actually believe that he can make progress, and we've done it.

So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. And when someone asks you if YOU know anyone who's actually LOST benefits due to health care reform, you can say "YES."

After all, to cover everyone, whether they need it or not, then everyone will have to have less. I think Karl Marx said that (he was the one with the RED hair; Groucho had the cigar.)

Update:

AP reports that some insurers are already discontinuing childrens' health policies.

Please, if you think that's a coincidence, get some counseling.

The History of American Radicalism, Part One

A certain radio talk show host (OK, Glenn Beck) has posted up a link to one of those hippy-dippy "manifestos" from the bored & stoned self-styled revolutionary groups of the 1960s.

Unfortunately, this group of long-hairs actually did stuff. Like blow up police stations.

The Weathermen (and then Weather Underground) were just one of the revolutionary groups that formed during the 1960s because they couldn't get government jobs back then.

Ironically, if those same folks were still around (and not retired professors & community organizers) they would probably GET government jobs and contribute to the system that they hated so much.

I saw a book at Borders the other day about "Trustafarians." That's probably how we would classify these guys if they rose up today: spoiled rich kids with nothing else to think about than the "black belt" and revolution. Man, college must have been tough for them, having to carry the knowledge that they...alone... held the key to the future of Western Civilization - revolution.

Stop laughing and get back to work.

Another one too good to be true

OK, a little history. In the stimulus bill passed by Congress law last year, they slipped in a federal health records infrastructure requirement. In short, they mandated that your doctor will computerize and centralize (eventually) all of your medical records.

[Trivia: that was originally thought out by Tom Daschle, former Senate majority leader who is an "expert" and wrote a book on healthcare. Well, wrote a book on government policy about healthcare, not the same thing. He suggested that you've got to control the information before you can control everything else.]

The government is going to take over your medical records. You know, to make them more accurate and efficient.

One of the comments in recent weeks has been that the system would require a notation of your Body Mass Index, an indication of whether you're obese or not.

We find out today, however, that these records CAN tell us if you were fat, but they WON'T need to include your HIV status or any records of abortions.

Politics is politics folks. Businesses who embrace this type of madness have no idea what they've got in store.

Gold coin tax hidden in health care law?

Just couldn't let this one slip by. Seems that there are lots of things in the healthcare bill that have nothing to do with healthcare.

Is there any wonder that businesses have everything on hold right now. The main driver of our current recession is:

UNCERTAINTY.

We're waiting on the next shoe (or tax) to drop. That's the only way to understand what's happening in our country right now, and to some extent the rest of the world. Certainly Europe.

Don't take my word for it. Benjamin Bernanke says the same thing. Smart guy.

One thing is for certain, though. A bunch of tax changes are coming, if nothing else because the Bush tax cuts expire on 12/31 of this year. That alone has a lot of people holding back, waiting to see what life will be like. After.

Can we get past the whole race thing?

I've heard more today about the USDA situation. Shirley Sherrod, former USDA official, gave a talk in March at an NAACP conference and explained that she had initial misgivings about helping a "white" farmer save his farm back in the '80s.

It's now been shown that the early press reports that included Ms. Sherrod's talk had edited things quite a bit. The POINT of her speech, and many speeches since that time, was to demonstrate to people how she OVERCAME the racist ideas and looked beyond color.

First, let me say that I think Ms. Sherrod is one brave person. Until more brave people talk about how WRONG they were to think in racial terms, and how being racist can poison one's life, no matter what color we are, things won't change. I applaud her. She's a role model for all of us, in my opinion.

I wish more people in powerful positions could realize when their views are tainted by bigoted and wrong ideas. Heck, we're conditioned to believe, every day, that someone's race is important. How often do we hear terms such as "white" or "black" or "African-American" or "Mexican-American"? What do they MEAN?

When I see a form that asks what race I am, I wonder "How the hell do I know?" Most of the time I'm thinking, too, "What the hell difference does it make?" How does ANYONE know what race they are, and why would it ever be important?

I've been sharing office space at Borders this summer with Census workers. Nice bunch of folks. Just plain folks. But have you seen the Census forms? The long forms are all about race, or where "your people" came from.

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THAT MAKE? Aren't we all Americans? (All of us who are here legally, I guess.)

All I can figure is that it makes some difference to politicians. Maybe they need a way to divide people, and race is a convenient thing for them.

When I was growing up, we didn't care about that stuff because we were all too busy being POOR. Back a couple of generations, we were POOR first and hungry next, and then maybe at number 48 on the list I could afford to notice that my skin color was somehow lighter than other folks. I'm sure other people in other places had to deal with it on a daily basis, but most of us didn't have time to. Heck, we didn't even know we were poor, because we were happy, and there were plenty of people (of all different groups) who were worse off than us.

Granted, I will never know what it's like to walk in a black man's shoes. I can NEVER know what trials and tribulations that the generations before mine had to endure. I'll never know what it is to be denied a promotion because I'm a woman, and someone is ignorant and biased. I'll never be able to know those things.

But one thing I do know: if you choose who you work with or hire or buy from on the basis of something as superficial as skin color or last name or gender, you won't last long in business!

Relevance: UHCL is now listed as an "Hispanic Serving Institution." I applaud our efforts to cater to an underserved group in our community. I also hope that while we're focusing on being an "HSI" that it will help us improve service and responsiveness to ALL students regardless of race or ethnicity. Cudos to the faculty and administration at UHCL on achieving this designation -- I think it points out that everyone deserves the same consideration and courtesy, and everyone deserves the same opportunity to learn (with no short cuts).

Total bailout thus far: $3.7T, says Reuters

Don't take MY word for it, look on Reuters. I'm not sure that includes everything, but I don't have time to look at it more thoroughly this morning.

Things we'll have to "wait & see" about in reform bill

Google News has a link to an article discussing the myriad things that we don't know about in the financial "reform" bill. All legislative action leaves it up to the regulators to "fill in the blanks." Nothing new here. But scary nonetheless.

UPDATE 7/21/10

Wall Street bankers are peeved at not being invited to the bill's signing with President Obama. I think they're overreacting; in a few years they'll be GLAD they weren't part of this firedrill.

Also, comments from Sec. Geithner on the new law. Most interesting is that it's supposed to prevent another Lehman Brothers-like default. Of course it eliminates the risk of another Lehman -- this law gives El Presidente the ability to bail out ANY company if it's in the national interest. Without limits.

Don't believe me? Look it up. Or as they say in AZ these days, "read the bill."

Turns out GM, Chrysler dealer closings were "arbitrary," just as people said when it was happening

We're finding out now that the list of closed dealerships at Chrysler & GM was probably too long, and that there was no set of standards imposed impartially when deciding who to close down. The inspector general for the program ( report here and IG homepage here ) says that things may not have been done in an open and forthcoming manner. Duh.

No surprise - we'll eventually find out that political and regional favoritism were involved, I bet. If you had a louder, more popular Congress member in your district, you could avoid being shut down.

Next, we'll see some lawsuits from dealership owners, and some of those will be successful just based on this report.

Same thing happened to the FDIC during the 1990s - shareholders who had been closed down during the prior decade sued the FDIC and won because the FDIC didn't apply the rules the same way for everyone. There's a good book out there that covers this time period, called FDICing Around. (Maybe I'll put my copy on the Web for students at some point, but it's really scary.)

This is how government allocates, folks. Not well. Anytime anyone says "it's an emergency" or "it's for the children," grab your wallets.

Strategic Defaults at Freddie OMG

I missed this before, but the New York Times piece (below) about how the rich were getting hit hard by the mortgage crisis contains a link to a Freddie Mac discussion about whether or not a family should continue paying their mortgage or just walk away.

Interesting read. He's basically explaining the impact on the housing market from "strategic defaults". We used to refer to this as "walking away" or "handing over the keys," because that's literally what happens.

Quote:
Another alternative: if Freddie Mac owns the loan, a family might be able to refinance up to 125 percent of the current property value. In other words, if a family's home equity has been completely wiped out and the mortgage balance is as much as 25 percent more than the home is worth, we can help.

OK, as I've said in class:

THEY'RE STILL DOING IT.

THEY'VE LEARNED NOTHING.

Refinancing 125% of a property's value is what got us here to start with, or at least part of it.

This is from 5/3/10. Be afraid, be very afraid.

More on Financial Reform

A certain America's "most beloved" radio host used to have a spot on Fridays where he would call a convenience store in two opposing NFL cities and ask the clerks 5 questions about their city or America. He would then use the results to predict the outcome of that weekend's game between the two city's teams. It was pretty accurate.

He called this "More On Trivia". Read that to yourself quickly a couple of times.

I'll refer to the new financial reform bill in the same way as "More-On Financial Reform."

Some links from the Wall St. Journal today.

Fed Gets New Powers

Bill Remakes the Financial Landscape

Economists Split Over New Law

From Yahoo:

Financial Reform

Enjoy.

Finally, an editorial from WSJ pointing out that this is just the most recent in a long line of ineffectual regulations passed by the current bunch in DC.

Living Wills for Banks - IndyMac

DealBook has an interesting piece about the effects of a bank's closure on the economy, and suggests that IndyMac could have used a "living will." It's a must read, after you've finished the 2,319 pages of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Good links on Dodd-Frank Finance Bill

I've scoured the Web today to try to find the latest on the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill.

Wait, it's officially the

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

I can't say that without giggling.

The PDF of the conference report is here (that's the one that's supposed to merge Senate and House changes to get the thing passed). I can't tell if it's the final bill or not. It's 2,319 pages. The summary of the bill's progress is here, with an outline.

There's a mention of NPV on page 2255, in reference to the loan modification program, and there will be an online calculator available.

I can understand that the motivation is a desire to have transparency in the modification process, to require lenders to disclose their inputs for THEIR NPV models ("I'm sorry, you can't refinance b/c it's a negative NPV transaction..."). If Truth-in-Lending covers APRs and lending rates, it should extend to refinancing and loan workouts, too, right? Sensible. However, explaining the NPV process to every man on the street is going to be a tough one. Trust me on this.

Fannie and Freddie, and their situation, are actually mentioned on page 2257. Interestingly, Congress includes language in this bill that shows the depth of stupidity that their involvement represented, and they blame HUD for the most part. For example, we can say with certainty that nobody at HUD ever passed a statistics class (maybe they took one online or something).

From Section 1491, page 2258 of the conference bill:

(2) In 1996, the Department of Housing and Urban Development required that 42 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's mortgage financing should go to borrowers with income levels below the median for a given area.

(3) In 2004, the Department of Housing and Urban Development revised those goals, increasing them to 56 percent of their overall mortgage purchases by 2008, and additionally mandated that 12 percent of all mortgage purchases by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be "special affordable" loans made to borrowers with incomes less than 60 percent of an area's median income, a target that ultimately increased to 28 percent for 2008.

I feel like I'm in a science-fiction movie as I write this.

It then goes on to give subprime numbers. Wow. Turns out we could be on the hook (taxpayers, I mean) for up to $5.3 Trillion.

Let's review:

The first estimate for the S&L bailout, as part of CEBA in 1987, was $10.9B. Two years later it was upwards of $590B, with an eventual cost of just under $200B. Apply govt hubris liberally.

Seriously, this number is probably based on the amount lost considering the recovery of dollars on homes that have defaulted. Who knows? I've tried to track this number down without success.

Wall St. Journal has a summary of features from the conference bill here, but I won't know its veracity until I read the whole, passed law, eventually.

Maybe the Speaker's comment on health care reform (we have to pass it to find out what's in it) will apply here, too.

There's a post at Harvard Law regarding this bill and executive pay, with notes on how this differs from Sarbox. I don't purport to understand all of it, but it makes good reading.

There's an older link from NYT here, with a nice link to the summary (10 pages). Keep in mind that the summary is written by Congressional staffers, so it's pretty biased (yeah, yah think?). Talk about spin. Oh my goodness.

Medicare reports overdue

The normal timetable for reports on Social Security and Medicare has been pushed back, with the concern that these reports may contain some bad, higher numbers that nobody wants to talk about.

Certainly Congress doesn't want to talk about it, not right now.

The first (almost) Twitter bank run

Now who knows what REALLY goes on in Venezuela with a madman at the helm, but it's reported today that authorities there have shut down an attempt to start a bank run via Twitter.

In case you haven't heard of it, Twitter is this online service thing used by celebrities to send short, usually vapid messages to their loser friends. Just kidding (they send messages to their loser fans, since celebrities don't have friends).

Reminds me of the time Chuck Boozer, a Charlotte, NC, drivetime disk jockey was arrested for joking about a line around BB&T on the day of the 1987 stock crash. He spent weekends in federal custody after his conviction -- you can't start bank runs in the US, either.

Lame duck agenda

In business, when you're voted out you're pretty much voted out and someone walks you to your desk with a box (figuratively speaking). In politics, once you're voted out you get a chance to come back to Congress and demonstrate to the peepul why it was they voted you out in the first place.

We should expect to see all kinds of things voted on after the crushing November defeat of the Democrats in the House. From a business standpoint, the scariest may be the energy bill known as cap-and-trade. It's supposed to limit carbon emissions, and it may be able to achieve that, but in doing so will raise energy costs and the prices of everything that uses energy. Scary stuff, based on the global warming idea and the need to show that we're "doing something." Never mind that countries around the world, China and India leading, are laughing at us for even considering such a stupid measure.

Card-check is in there too. That's a measure that unions want, and have paid to get, that requires an open vote on whether workers at a company will unionize. So in other words, every voter's ballot would be shown to everyone - nice, huh? It's supported by SEIU and a bunch of other thug union types, and there are likely some consequences, perhaps personal ones for Congressmembers, if it doesn't get passed. So watch out.

It will be an interesting year, regardless of what happens in November. But if the agenda in Congress doesn't turn around, and quick, we're going to see a bigger double-dip than the single dip we've already got.

HouChron on consumer debt trouble; Sam's and SBA

The Chronicle has a story tonight about how consumer debt was down in May. It includes credit cards, so we've got to consider the effect of card reform-banks have yanked open balances, upped minimums, and boosted rates for a couple of years now, mostly in response to the Feb. 2009 reform bill.

Banks have been pulling the credit of even the best borrowers, folks with high credit scores, and upping minimum rates and payments for the same people.

In the meantime, it was reported this week that the Small Business Administration is planning to offer loans through Sam's Club. I kid you not. According to the article

"The loan program will focus on minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses, as well as very small enterprises."

No way? I never would have guessed THAT.

Up is down, sunshine is rain, dogs and cats living together, etc. George Orwell would be right at home these days.

Biggest defaulting group: the wealthy

NYT is reporting that the rich are more likely to default than the poor. I'm not sure I agree with their analysis (average homes in CA are outrageously expensive) but it's interesting to consider.

Was the default crisis caused by "Flip This House" or whatever? Interesting question.

Boston court decides that states do have rights after all; leaves on vacation to AZ :-)

A federal judge in Boston has ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 violates the tradition of letting states set their own marriage standards.

Relevance: if the feds have to butt out of marriage contracts, will they also have to leave AZ alone for passing a law that requires federal law to be enforced.

The Dept. o' Justice's case against AZ slipped out today, and their arguments will have nothing to do with discrimination, but instead rely on the federal responsibility of enforcing immigration laws. The discrimination thing doesn't hold water, and they know it.

[Frankly, the discrimination thing plays well with special interest groups, but it's specious - there's no racial profiling in the AZ law.]

If city governments decide to NOT enforce immigration laws, does that mean DOJ will sue them, too? It remains to be seen whether DOJ will apply the logic they are using for AZ to sanctuary cities such as Houston and San Francisco.

This AZ thing is costing the state plenty of tourism and business. We'll have to wait and see if the Boston ruling applies, but it sounds like a "state's rights" thing to me.

A new take on financial reform, job opportunity

Section 342 of the latest version of the financial reform act contains a provision requiring FDIC and other regulators to establish an "Office of Women & Minority Inclusion" in each agency. In addition, any business having financial dealings with the government would have to set up the same, it looks like. Even law firms.

I've posted a link to an article about it because I doubt you'll see this discussed on the evening news.

30-Year Rates at all-time low

Freddie Mac has put out survey results that show rates at an all-time low. The 30-year fixed rate was recently measured at 4.57%, down from 4.58%. ARM rates have dropped too [although I'm not sure why anyone would want an ARM when fixed rates are so low].

Meanwhile, GAO and others are reporting that the mortgage bailout through the Federal government isn't really working. You know, the program that gets $1B on 10/1 of this year, and unlimited amounts thereafter (according to the Dodd-Frank bill). Yippee.

It looks like there's a great deal of refinancing demand, but not a lot of new home purchases. No surprise. There are plenty of houses that need buyers evidently.

Why are rates so low? Well, money needs somewhere to go, I guess. Maybe it's the security of the underlying property. Or maybe it's because unless you've got a really high credit score you can't get a loan these days. So credit quality is up, I'd bet. Also, as more defaults occur, the pools get cleaner and cleaner. Who knows?

Freddie and Fannie are still underwriting, evidently, and bleeding as fast as they can. Still no plan to work out their struggles. GAO says it may cost a lot of money (last year) and then CBO says more money (this year with PDF on background).

Not sure Dell was thinking things through on this

Yahoo Finance has a story today about how Dell told the UT Math Department that it had broken its Dell PCs by using them to do too much math. The lawsuit contents from 3 years ago were opened recently to give us some insight into what went on. Evidently, Dell had lots of machines with bad capacitors and had to eat a lot of crow.

Priceless.

I guess Dell doesn't have anyone schooled in implied warranties, specifically fitness for a particular purpose. When the PC is bought by the MATH DEPARTMENT it might suggest what they are going to use it for.

Coming to a gulag near you - healthcare rationing!

Jake Tappert may be the only honest reporter left in Washington. Today he points out that the new recess-appointment healthcare czar (this is like Number 42 or something) is known internationally as an expert on rationing systems.

No way! Rationing! You mean like the "death panels" that everyone laughed at Sarah Palin for? THAT kind of rationing?

We've got to face the facts that we either ration healthcare in this country by price or by "something else." When "something else" becomes "who you know" or "who you will vote for," and it will, inevitably, how are we different from Cuba?

Can you imagine showing a voter registration card at the doctor's office? Not far away.

I've written about Medicare here before. If you've ever had to deal with Medicare, you know that it's not about care, it's about rationing. Getting better service with Medicare requires you to yell louder than everyone else is yelling, figuratively speaking of course. Having better attorneys maybe. "Knowing somebody." Having an "in." What Medicare requires is for nobody to have more so that everyone can have less. With paperwork & admin types. Medicare has driven up the cost of insurance and senior care enough that private options aren't available in most cases, or may be illegal in others (doctors can't negotiate fees with patients, for example, short-circuiting the supply-demand process).

Dr. Berwick (the new czar, see above) seems to understand what free markets mean, and he is on the record opposing them, and stating that health care requires a redistribution of wealth. Don't take my word for it - here are his words.

I can promise that "rationing" (read as "allocation of services") will happen - that's just basic economics. I'd like to think that it would happen via a price system rather than the political system, but it looks like limiting choices and raising costs to healthy and successful folks is the order of the day. You see, there's no reason to worry about national health care if YOU have health insurance. Even if you've worked hard and been successful and you live your life carefully, you can't be allowed to have nice health insurance because government can't control it. Because if you have your own insurance & doctor choice, you'll have no incentive to work toward solutions to the health care "crisis," or sign off on government control.

If you give government control over your healthcare, what incentive will you have to take better care of yourself, etc.? None, so they'll have to legislate what we eat. Better not ask Justice-to-be Kagan about that one, because she doesn't know if it's Constitutional or not. The Commerce Clause might just let them do that, you know.

Final note:

If anyone still thinks that all of this is unrelated, guess again. There's an agenda in Washington that goes against the wishes of the vast majority of regular folks. Unfortunately, there will be just enough things that people like, as individuals, that most of this will be allowed to stand or progress over time. Once that curtain closes, people will vote their pocketbooks. For some of us, that means voting to lower our taxes. But for millions upon millions in this country, and the number is growing every day, voting means a chance to shaft everyone else and put something in their pocket.

Don't believe me? Look up "earned income tax credit" sometime.

NASA to Boldly Go...on Hajj

Wow, the NASA thing just gets stranger as time goes on.

Some jokes start, "OK, an Irishman, German and Kiwi walk into a bar ..." yada-yada-yada ... punchline, rimshot.

I've got a new one for you.

"OK, so Charlie Bolden, the new NASA admin-in-chief, goes on Al Jazeera and says that his top priority is outreach to Muslim nations..."

[Note to the nitpickers: I don't care if it's spelled correctly, it's Al Jazeera. Same with Col. Khadafi, last name OR first, for the same reason.]

The chief argument I have with Mr. Bolden's assertion is that it APPEARS that Mr. Obama's top priority is preserving Florida jobs related to NASA until after the next election. If possible.

I don't think anyone else in the whole wide world would have put Mr. Bolden's top priority on their list, much less at the top. I admit that including other nations in the space program is a good idea, but I think at this juncture we don't have a lot of leeway on things.

I've got a great idea: maybe we should sponsor a joint Moon shot with Dubai or UAE and we could fire up all the programs that have been cancelled in the last six months. I'm only half joking.

What the administration doesn't get, nor does Congress at this point, is that wherever we end up going in space, the likelihood is increasing every day that we'll be received by Chinese when we get there. They are rapidly moving to the high ground. I would be nice if someone in the halls of power would act like they've noticed.

Too Big to Bail Out

Nouriel Roubini is at it again - sowing seeds of doubt about the economy. He's convinced we're at a saddle-point for interventionist economics (that's what it sounds like): the institutions in trouble are too big to bail out, but too big to fail.

"Dr. Doom" doesn't disappoint.

I'd argue that we've spent all of our policy ammunition (most of it created from scratch) on bailing out the wrong industries, and union pensions, and trying to take over other industries that government really has no business taking over. But that's just me.

On the mortgage front:

The May numbers for defaults & delinquents are in, and guess what - they're up! More on this as time goes by. Linkies to press release, report from LPS and data.

Apple admits flawed signal meter; Brooklyn Bridge for sale

Not sure I believe this one. After years of complaints about AT&T and it's crappy cellphone patterns, Apple has admitted today that it's algorithm for calculating average signal intensity is faulty.

Update: Told you this stunk. Big controversy today (7/15) that might lead to recall. More here.

Here's why it smells: some of the best comm engineers in the whole world have been looking at this for a while now, because Apple's tying agreement with AT&T is costing them billions of dollars per year (millions of iPhones not sold, IOW). It's been a subject of ridicule by none other than Fake Steve Jobs:

"Right here in your own backyard, an American company creates a brilliant phone, and that company hands it to you, and gives you an exclusive deal to carry it — and all you guys can do is complain about how much people want to use it."

Pure comic gold.

So now we find out that it has a faulty meter? Not bloody likely. Sounds like spin to me.

The other big news, I guess: Apple finally admits it did something wrong. For once.

Anyone remember the SNL fake ad for Newton? It was too big for real pockets, so they made special shirts for it? Classic stuff.

Huzzah! Flood Insurance gets through the Senate... until 9/30

KHOU has a blurb that the Senate has renewed the National Flood Insurance Program, through September 30. The House evidently worked on it last week.

We still need to find out 1) if His Nibs will sign it, and 2) whether there's all kindsa Pork attached to it. I'm betting for the Pork.

The Lesson:
For the record, flood insurance isn't really insurance -- it's a wealth transfer program, a subsidy to get people to live in flood areas. Who buys it? People in flood zones. Why do they buy it? Because they KNOW that it's going to be useful to them. People who don't live in flood zones don't buy it, unless they're forced to. Sound familiar?

No apologies from me. If govt wants me to live near water, and pay taxes, etc. they'll subsidize flood insurance. Otherwise, I'll live somewhere else.

For that matter, federally-guaranteed mortgages are a wealth transfer program too, but as with this, they've been deemed a good use of public dollars. We'll see how that ends up, too.

So this all happens again on 9/30, at the end of the hurricane season, almost.

Let's see what we have to do to get it passed next time. Re-elect the right folks?

Is Congress holding the Gulf Coast hostage?

Another aspect of this: What if flood insurance has to deal with oil in the water? If you get storm damage AND oil, you'll need to call both FEMA and BP, right?

Bed bugs! Who has bed bugs?

Evidently, Abercrombie & Fitch had to close a Hollister store in NYC because of bed bug infestation.

Temporarily, we hope. God forbid anyone has to go without the latest Twilight-compliant fashion statement crafted in fleece.

I mention this because I'd just bet that they didn't figure THIS into their risk management agenda for the year. Lost sales due to bugs. Wow.

Things are tough all over.

This just in: plane called back to gate & fumigated over maggots in overhead bin.

Some loser brought a container of meat onto the plane, and maggots fell out of it.

Now, this begs the obvious question:

How can a bag of wormy meat get by TSA when my shampoo cannot?

Do we need to find some contractors to provide maggot detectors for the low bid?

UPDATE:
The store is now open again after taking care of the bedbug problem. The world is once again safe for overpriced clothes.