Your favorite professor cited by The Signal, new level of fame reached

Check out the early December version of The Signal (the new name for The Uhclidian). The writer happened to catch me over at Career Services for a Finance Recruiting Night skull session with Chuck Crocker and Caitlin Weekley, and interviewed us about the "value of a college degree."

I'm sure you can guess where I stood on the issue.

Of course she'd already checked out REAL sources such as an OWS blogger. That's kind of hard to compete with, you know.

As a professor, I'm offended

California Democrat compares President Obama to college professors. Interesting.

I'm sure we can come off as overbearing and self-sure at times, but that's what they pay us for. After all, we're experts. We may be an expert in the most obscure piece of Medieval literature ever found (the pope's laundry list, for example), but by God we're an expert in something.

After all, if we aren't experts, then we can't certify that you learnt something while you were at the Kollege of Knowledge. That's our job, you know.

As for "NEVER TALK TO REAL PEOPLE" as a policy, I'm sure we've all seen how that phenomenon works in real life. During the Bush administration they were criticized for having a "bunker" mentality - I wonder if this is similar.

I know in higher ed it's very common for administrators to forget what it's like to teach classes; they sometimes forget the mission of their institutions after being elevated to higher ranks. Cases of this are rampant, and now the buzz is that there is a "bubble" in administrators and staff throughout colleges and universities in the US. Maybe the "bubble" wouldn't get noticed as much if there was more attention to "teeth" and not so much to the "tail" of the operation.

Fort Hood shooting was just another example of "workplace violence"

I hate to post Fox News stuff here because so many people have a knee-jerk reaction to that agency, but they're running this today and it needs to be highlighted.

Evidently the Obama administration has characterized the killing of 13 people and maiming of dozens of others at Fort Hood two years ago as "workplace violence." Senator Susan Collins of Maine (R-INO) has trouble with it, too.

And that's probably the FIRST conservative thought that's crossed her desk in the last 10 years. If the RINOs are even rampaging about it, it must be a big deal.

"Fast & Furious" was all about gun control

Don't take MY word for it, take it from CBS. They're saying today that internal memos show that ATFE's gun-running operation into Mexico was going to be used to tighten gun restrictions in this country.

I never would have guessed that.

""Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks."

Booyah.

Next, we need to find out if Dept. of State was involved. If you'll remember, ole HRC herself was making a case that the border violence was due to loose guns from Texas and it was out of hand and she wanted to "do something about it." Did she know about this too?

A lingering question: A couple of years ago there were rumblings from the anti-gun crowd about how the administration wasn't planning anything, but then they were evidently reassured that "something" was in the works by some admin "insiders" and the rumblings from the base stopped. Was Fast-and-Furious the magic "something?" That would be great to know.

And this reference comes to mind from earlier this year.

FoxNews again

The hidden gotcha of ObamaCare

It exploded last week: a legal requirement that companies spend 80% of premiums on expenditures for covered expenses, when the average was something less than that before. The administration accomplished this feat by publishing a list of qualifying medical expenses through HHS.

Isn't that nice of them.

The best part: some companies get 85% as the number.

So, once again, it's death by 1000 cuts - health insurance companies must live and die by the federal government's whim, not by serving their customers. Insurance has been regulated plenty before, of course, but this is just over the top.

When we look back in a decade or so at how health care has deteriorated, some folks will still be asking "Wot happend?"

This guy's perspective is that it's GOOD for the system, eliminating or hurting all those evil for-profit insurance companies. He points out that there will always be a health insurance system for "those who can pay for it."

I can pay for mine now. I can even pay for my kid's health care now since BCBSTX figured out a way to weasel out of paying for it. I just can't afford to pay for other people's health care or poor decisions.

I think he's talking about allocating health care the way they allocated Zil limousines in Soviet Russia. OF COURSE there will always be a system "for those who can pay for it." Or those who know the right folks. Or those who have certain names. Etc.

Why big companies dive or thrive: Peggy Noonon on SJobs

I find the first few words of this article by Peggy Noonan very interesting.

There is an arresting moment in Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs in which Jobs speaks at length about his philosophy of business. He's at the end of his life and is summing things up. His mission, he says, was plain: to "build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products." Then he turned to the rise and fall of various businesses. He has a theory about "why decline happens" at great companies: "The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesman, because they're the ones who can move the needle on revenues." So salesmen are put in charge, and product engineers and designers feel demoted: Their efforts are no longer at the white-hot center of the company's daily life. They "turn off." IBM and Xerox, Jobs said, faltered in precisely this way. The salesmen who led the companies were smart and eloquent, but "they didn't know anything about the product." In the end this can doom a great company, because what consumers want is good products.

Jobs's theory of decline was elegant and simple as an iPad, and when I asked business leaders about it the past few weeks, they agreed, some with the kind of engagement that suggested maybe their own companies had experienced such troubles.

Noonan, Peggy. WSJ. 11/18/11. A Caveman Won't Beat a Salesman.

Man, ain't THIS the truth! We see this all the time! The belief that a better salesman can fix things is always flawed.

Groupon falls 35% in 3 days

I hate being RIGHT all the time. Damn.

How we got to the moon

CNN Blogs has a neat feature about different aspects of the Apollo moon shot program here.

It might be fun to see if the Chinese have to reinvent everything themselves or if they just choose to copy stuff that we did in the '60s. They certainly have the technological prowess for the latter. Hopefully they won't use as much lead paint in their spacecraft as their toys for export.

OWS moves to college campuses. Goody!

Seems that OWS is fizzling and the losers are returning to colleges to have their sit-ins and Ignorata meetings. I guess it's easier to get Mom & Dad to pay for protests closer to home.

NYT, again, has the story here. I wonder if these folks will acknowledge the free security and the open environment they're getting back at school.

It's a new Gold Rush, by gum!

NYT has a good article on the Green Gold Rush. Enjoy.

Hey, let's go screw up Europe now!

NLRB's suit against Boeing for moving operations to South Carolina represents a watershed for business in this country. Forget moving offshore - forget moving within the Lower 48! One of the principals involved sent this tweet suggesting that now they can go screw up Yurrup too.

Funny, yes, but smoking gun, too.

Welcome transparency! A good idea from the admin in Washington

The rumor is that the Obama Administration is threatening to use executive order to expose any lawmaker "requests" that impact federal agencies or funding. You know, that letter of introduction or that "reminder" about who's on what committee. That kind of thing.

I think that would be a great idea. Nothing disinfects like sunlight.

Wall Street Journal guide to jobs

WSJ has a new guide to unemployment figures - it's INTERACTIVE.

Finally we get to see just why it was we put up with all the hardship in school.

Energy bracelets share some amazing things with Groupon

Actually, just one BIG thing. They're both poor investments, it turns out. Or it will LIKELY turn out in the future. Check here.

Groupon 1, Reality 0

More here about the Groupon IPO. Note that it's a tiny sale compared to the full equity value of the firm.

Another neat point is the mention of LinkedIn's 9% price drop when they announced more shares sold after IPO. That could be an effect of the investor that sold, but who knows. Whatever it is, managers will have to make up the drop somewhere else.

Here's another link to LinkedIn's IPO info, from the New Yorker. They had a small chunk issued, too, back in May of this year. Yahoo Finance for LinkedIn looks like this.

The article mentions Pandora, the online radio firm that debuted recently too. Yahoo Finance here.

Finally, compare all of these to the grand-daddy of them all: Google.

And Apple, I guess.

Debit fee may be dead, but others await

From a Boston newspaper, here.

In other news, Boston still has a newspaper.

Freddie Mac Needs Your Money!

No surprise. Freddie Mac continues to lose money, has axed for a few billion more of the taxpayer dollars.

Mayor Bloomberg gets one right!

Seems he told a commerce group that the Crisis was the fault of Congress, who forced banks to lend to poor risks.

Maybe he's on to something there!

Article here.

Meanwhile, Daily Koz suggests that banks are securitizing subprime car loans now.

Hello, 1998 wants its news back!

LA Times story on Buy-Here, Pay-Here car lending is here. This stuff is just evil, seriously. Lending money to folks who can't pay it back is wrong on every level. It's like slavery.

On a related note: did you know that of the 91,000 Germans captured at Stalingrad, only 6,000 were eventually repatriated? Says the History Channel. A society has the morality it can afford-I guess Stalin could only afford slavery. Just like ancient cultures to make captives into slaves. I'd heard this before (how German labor built expensive dachas for Commie elites) but this reminded me.

History Channel, another reason to have Netflix.

Goodnight Gracie.

Student loan bribes...I mean "stimulus."

Just in time for the campaign season: the administration wants to bypass Congress and allow different repayment terms for student loans under the mantra that "We Can't Wait."

Looks to me like we're allocating on the basis of need, since repayment will be based on what someone earns.

How about this: let's base repayment on what someone borrows, and that should keep people from borrowing too much. Alternatively, let's base repayment on the time value of money. How's that for a plan?

Sorry, but this looks too much like buying votes. I hate to get all political, but that's what it looks like.

I guess we knew this was coming. Stand by for more...

What can you do to prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse?

Well, Glenn Beck has some ideas on what to do to get ready for the Zombie Apocalypse (or any other economic catastrophe). Some of the comments are just as informative, in my opinion.

Remember the rules from ZombieLand too. They're good to keep on hand, even in the event of a financial securitization meltdown.

UTMB fights to send a patient home...to Mexico

CBSHouston reports that UTMB is having problems sending a paralyzed man back to Mexico, even going so far as to offer a plane ticket.

The gentleman in question, Francisco Martinez, was hurt in a work accident, but he is in this country illegally. While he remains in the hospital his family is staying in a homeless shelter in Galveston.

It's unclear whether his current treatment at UTMB can be considered "emergency" treatment, which the hospital is obligated to provide.

I'd say that Step One would be for someone to figure out who he was working for and figure out how to prosecute the employer. Perhaps even find some hotshot lawyer to figure out how to sue the employer for the guy's medical bills and family expenses.

After all, he wouldn't need to be here if someone hadn't given him a job.

Until we as a society start finding the employers liable for the actions of the illegal immigrants that they are supporting here we won't see a change in behavior on anyone's part. The situation now seems to be a close cousin to slavery, with people living in fear of deportation or living on the margins.

Living a marginalized life isn't fair to this man, or his family, and this is just another example of how our current border policy (or lack thereof) is hurting people on both sides of the border. Just as slavery was the defining issue of the 1800s, it looks like illegal immigration will be the defining issue of this century.

Maybe the Occupy Wall Street bunch could occupy the border.

Catchphrase: We Can't Wait

The Obama administration is expected to move on housing and student loan bailouts this week, according to Reuters and AP. Evidently the Prez plans to use this to show how little Congress has been able to get done, with the catchphrase "We Can't Wait."

No doubt bailing out all those homeowners will help fix the housing market yet again. It's done so much already.

Investor are running from cash

The Globe reports that money market balances are down a third from Jan. 2009. More here.

BofA saddles retail side with Merrill losses

I guess it was a matter of time until the brain trust at Bank of America figured out how to laugh in the face of federal regulators and make them dance to their own tune.

The holding co. has figured out how to transfer trillions of dollars of obligations using just ink to the depositor side of the retail bank. Read about it here.

Update: looks like they woke up the parents (not that the parents will DO anything aboot it). See BidnessWeek here.

I guess these qualify as derivatives, but given the recent judgements against them, these are likely to end up being obligations that the bank will have to cover.

What does Sheila Bair think over at FDIC? She's not running the show anymore, it turns out.

Sprint Throws ClearWire under the bus

Looks like Spring and ClearWire are having a falling out. Interesting, considering that Sprint owns ClearWire.

Next Wave of MBS Disaster is about to hit

The largest settlement in the history of Wall Street? Chump change!

Read it in Forbes. $20B this time, not $8.5B.

More on the Volcker Rule: Regulation vs. Implementation

Seems that the OCC is struggling with Dodd-Frank's armchair vision of regulation. Read it here.

Govt spending has gone down this year, right? Wrong.

Thanks to a correspondent for sending this piece from Investors' Business Daily. It turns out that government spending, both state and federal, has actually gone UP this year. The media buzz blaming the recession's continuance on newfound austerity in DC is fallacious.

Shows what appealing to "everybody knows" can do to confuse people, as in "everybody knows that government spending is down after the 2010 elections." Fail.

Are You A 53%er?

Do you pay taxes? Then you are one of the 53% in the nation who pays while 47% does not.

I'm the 53%

You should check to see if any of these stories sound like yours.

Details of the Washington Mutual Collapse

I just dug this up about our favorite zombie bank.

Enjoy.

It's back to Mom's basement for the OWS crowd.

Looks like Mayor Bloomberg is finally getting a sane head and asking for actual rules on the OWS commune in NYC.

Good for him, except that it didn't happen.

For more on the source of the "spontaneous" street protests, check here.

From 10/1, some of their "demands" from businessinsider.com (thanks to Brent G. for this one). Looks critically at what the OWS losers have been told to say in case someone in the media actually asks for what they stand for.

I guess Mark Cuban is hoping that OWS will chop off his head last. Read his missive (er, pandering) to them here.

Update 10/26/11:

Turns out that some resources of the former ACORN organization are being used to support OWS. Hard to believe!

Occupy Wall Street is funded by Soros - Reuters

In what we should label is a very brave and risky move, Reuters today is telling people how it really is. Turns out George Soros may be helping to back the Occupy Wall Street movement via umbrella groups.

Now, I already figured that, deep in my heart, but it's sobering to see a prime once-legit media outlet come up with it. I also knew that the planning for this stuff had been in the works for months or even years, but it's nice to confirm.

Mr. Soros' political leanings are hard to describe, really, since he funds progressive (read that as Marxist) efforts to thwart capitalism while at the same time makes money placing bets on economic instability. I think he's tired of America dominance and would like to see us go down the tubes so other cultures could emerge that he could exploit. Or something. Maybe that makes sense after all. Tired of just betting against and collapsing monetary systems, Mr. Soros might be going after whole economies or even ways of life now. Hmmmm...

I hope that when all is said and done Mr. Soros' charities will step in to help clean up the mess left behind, both literally and figuratively.

On another note, my class last night was discussing, by themselves, how OWS=Losers. I ruled in ONLY after letting them talk about it for a few minutes (at the end of our break). So it seems that some of "today's yoot" actually get it. Thank goodness.

Is rising income inequality a myth? Ask The Economist

I apologize to my readers for just spotting this article in The Economist from last month. There are a couple of beefy links there to recent studies that question the recently popular obviousness of growing income inequality. Enjoy.

Might there be an increasing political agenda behind the popularity of class warfare these days? Cynical, huh? Do we think that political groups might want to make hay with the whole class warfare thing and the idea that the "rich get richer and the poor get poorer (with cellphones, cable and big-screen TVs)".

Frankly, I can see BOTH sides of the aisle turning this kind of stuff into commercials.

News you can use: Angel investing climbed 4.7% in the first two quarters. YAY!

As reported here (with linky) a study by the University of New Hampshire Center for Venture Research documents an increase in angel financing for the first six months of the year.

My quick hypothesis: they had to put their money SOMEPLACE, and so private equity is starting to see the effects of flight to quality (or, in this case, keeping things close to the vest and directable, perhaps).

Interesting read; enjoy.

Senators Durbin, Schumer remain free

Note that Senator Dick Durbin (D - Illinois) is still walking around with the rest of us. Given his language inciting a bank run a couple of weeks ago you'd think the Feds would have picked him up by now.

There seem to be two standards in this country.

Of COURSE there are: as a correspondent points out, senators and House members are immune from prosecution for what they say on the floor of the chambers. What was I thinking?

For more on Senators collapsing banks, we have the Schumer/IndyMac incident from 2008, documented ex post here. Even MORE interesting is that George Soros and some other folks ended up buying it to "save" it later. [Weird, but there are lots of busted links on the last page. No telling how THAT happened.]

The Ghouls are out in time for Halloween

Dr. Roubini is at it again, talking about collapse and recession and doom and gloom. The problem that I have with this is that talk of doom and gloom is one of the causal factors in recessions - if people THINK things are getting worse (or, if they're uncertain) then things will in fact get worse. Different from the Greenspan Effect (where people believe what they want to believe if Greenspan says it).

Professor Roubini gets richer the more he talks about collapse, so maybe this is his way of contrarian investing. After all, if you say the sky is falling enough it will eventually be true.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and even paranoid people have enemies. True dat.

Fannie and Freddie Debt In the News again

"Concern Grows Over Fannie and Freddie Debt". Well, to tell the truth, concern has never waivered. Just look at the job numbers.

Energy Independence: Two Paths

Check out this cartoon.

Senator Durbin Breaks the Law on the Senate Floor, on camera, no kidding

NOTE: This seems to be a video-link with text. Sorry about that, I couldn't find a better one.

ABC News is reporting that Senator Richard Durbin (D - imwit) is calling for folks to get their money the heck out of Bank of America (B of A).

Funny thing is: He's the main guy behind the legislation that caused them to lose their network fees in the first place, and so now B of A is charging for using a debit card. Before, they charged that to retailers; now they cannot. See Forbes article here. The Fed's final ruling on the matter was put out in June.

One more thing: inciting a bank run is against the law in the US.

Chuck Boozer, the afternoon drive guy on a radio station in Charlotte, spent time in federal custody following the 1987 crash by cracking a joke about folks "lining up around BB&T down there" as he watched from his booth. Dumb.

So I hope bank regulators and federal law enforcement officials are going to be consistent about this one. You don't tell people to pull their money out of a bank, any bank, for any reason. That's just a bad idea.

Edit: I keep getting the idea that some of these politicians act like a systemic collapse would "wake people up" or get more people to march on Wall Street and vote for World Socialism or something. I think they should realize that the next REAL social upheaval is likely to end up taking them out of office with a vote.

As mentioned above, Dr. Steve Cotten (AKA "correspondent") has pointed out that Article I of the Constitution forbids prosecution for crimes permitted on the floor of Congress. Good thing, too, huh?

Spanish Proverbs for Teaching Finance

If you click the title of this post it will take you to a working paper that lists English and Spanish proverbs that apply to various financial concepts. Pretty neat - I've seen the English ones discussed before.

My concern would be the pronunciation across dialects and the relevance to people from different Spanish-speaking regions.

Enjoy.

Again with Wall Street protests? Actual pics this time.

Don't these folks have jobs? Wait, from the looks of them probably not.

I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that there's a political organization or twelve behind this. After all, what are the chances that these losers actually pulled it off without help? Boston, too? Not likely.

Maybe SEIU and others are really running the show. Lennon (the Walrus) said 'Follow the money.' maybe he was on to something.

Alabama is losing people due to fear over new state immigration law

Evidently, a recent Federal court ruling upholding Alabama's recent law requiring identification is causing fear among the undocumented persons who are living there.

Given the state's record on race relations, I can understand. But I can also understand that the state's residents TODAY are trying to push back against the wave of immigration TODAY, and it has nothing to do with the past.

An article on the ruling is here, posted by an immigration attorney. There must be big bucks in this immigration stuff, huh?

The G-Men are on the case - with Gibson Guitars

Thank goodness the Feds are taking care of things these days! Gibson Guitars is suspected of trading in forbidden wood and has been made to surrender wood to the Feds or face fines and penalties (or court costs, who knows?). I read about this a few months ago and figured it would just pass, but it seems to go on and on.

Let's hope that the wood police are satisfied and Gibson can go on making their trademark, world famous and coveted instruments.

Another example of "too much govt."

Groupon gets into more mud with accounting measures

This may be old news, but Groupon has changed its income accounting yet again. In anticipation of eventually completing its IPO, Groupon just keeps revising things, hoping that the next revision will make everything alright for investors and the SEC simultaneously.

In August, the firm dropped Adjusted Consolidated Segment Operating Income, or ACSOI, from its IPO submission. ACSOI isn't GAAP, and it sounds fishy. But it shows how hard it is to reconcile investment with accounting sometimes; ACSOI allows them attempt to measure the value of their customer network or loyalty, or something, and amortize marketing costs over time. Unfortunately, it's just too fishy. Accounting has to figure out how to deal with fishy, I guess.

There were also questions in July, when I started looking at Groupon and its ilk and wondering how it wasn't a cash flow Ponzi scheme.

Didn't ZZZZ Best run into this kind of trouble?

There was another recent business model that suffered from the inability to amortize marketing expense properly, but I can't recall what it was. Hmmm.

Health Care Costs are Up: What did we expect?

From this article, it sounds like the insurance companies are tickled to death that ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act) is coming to bail them out. After all, they'll get to price most of us out of the market and cater to only the largest employers and healthiest people. Yippee for THEIR business models.

I'm not sure how to feel about this, but I think it scares me.

Thanks AP: The wealthy pay more taxes than the middle class. Duh?

The AP rules in on the current class warfare rhetoric and vitriol that's being spread out there. I don't know why it took them so long - the numbers are available from the IRS anytime anyone wants to look at them.

Believe it or not, the wealthiest Americans pay more taxes than the rest of us. Who knew?

From the article:

The Tax Policy Center estimates that 46 percent of households, mostly low- and medium-income households, will pay no federal income taxes this year. Most, however, will pay other taxes, including Social Security payroll taxes.

In fact, some folks will pay negative taxes. How does that happen? Well, programs such as EITC use the tax code as a redistribution platform. Sad but true.

Another good one, last two paragraphs:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was pressed at a White House briefing on the number of millionaires who pay taxes at a lower rate than middle-income families. He demurred, saying that people who make most of their money in wages pay taxes at a higher rate, while those who get most of their income from investments pay at lower rates.

"So it really depends on what is your profession, where's the source of your income, what's the specific circumstances you face, and the averages won't really capture that," Geithner said.

This from the SecTreas that didn't pay his taxes until he was nominated. Fat lot he knows about the situation, evidently. If you work as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, you don't pay taxes. Is that how it works?

Borders Closes Its Doors

Here's a HouChron blog piece about the closing of the Kirby Drive Borders store, which ended its 11-year run yesterday. As you may know, I spent a great deal of time at Borders over the past few years-their upstairs coffee bar was my office-away-from-the-office on many occasions. When they switched to opening at 10 I booked it to Anderson Library. Free Wi-Fi and cheap refills, and a great selection (but pricey).

I hope the best for the folks who lost their jobs. They're a talented bunch.

Gulf Coast Job Fair update!!!

As of yesterday at 10 AM we had 52 firms coming on campus to take resumes and a waiting list for others in case of cancellations. Wow. That sure is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our Career Services staff at UHCL.

The Big Show comes down on 9/21 (next Wednesday) 1:30 until in both atria of the Bayou Building. Please fix up your resume, get your suit cleaned, and plan to show up. Practice smiling in front of a mirror for a while... Get ready to shake some hands.

Click the title to sign up, or go to www.uhcl.edu/jobfairs .

WashPo wants us to pay attention to faith, suddenly

Seems strange, but the Washington Post today has an article about Gov. Perry and his speech at Liberty University that makes it sound like his faith is something new. I'd argue that our governor has always been pretty open about his personal faith. If this is supposed to hurt his candidacy, as it sounds from the tone of the piece, I'm not sure how.

If it's an effort to tell me that Gov. Perry is somehow pandering to the Evangelical Right, I'd argue that he's doing nothing different from the rest of his political career, and that it isn't pandering if you live your life that way.

Folks who hold a candidate's faith against them are going to do that regardless of what the Washington Post thinks. I seem to recall that the sitting prez wrote and spoke a lot about HIS faith when he was running, too...

Tole Ja. Social Security trustees say there are fewer than 2 payers for each recipient

Fact of life: we're going to have to tax people more to pay for Social Security. No way around it. It is, in fact, a Ponzi scheme, as somebody mentioned recently.

The trustees tell us stuff occasionally.

VW-Porsche merger may not happen after all

Sounds like the hedge fund lawsuits against Porsche (the holding company) might snag the whole merger with VW. Let's hope they get things resolved.

Jamie Dimon Blasts Basel III

Can you blame him? This is from the same bunch who brought us the PIGS mess (that's Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, please).

Big News: Gulf Coast Job Fair

Don't forget the upcoming job fair hosted at UH Clear Lake on 9/21. We have a laundry list of employers coming, and it always looks good to have lots of students there (in professional dress) asking for jobs. Caitlin Weekley of Career Services sent out a list of employers on Wednesday of this week.

Be ready when you get there - 2.5 hours goes by pretty quickly. Good luck.

This is Caitlin's flyer:

The Office of Career Services Presents the 2011 GULF COAST JOB FAIR

University of Houston-Clear Lake, Bayou Building, Atrium I & II

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

1:30 PM – 4:00 PM

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to connect with companies and organizations from various industries looking to connect with UHCL students and alumni!

Visit www.uhcl.edu/jobfairs for more information and to register!

We are grateful to our sponsor level employers for helping to support this event: Enterprise Holdings, ALS Environmental, Dahill, David McDavid Automotive Group, MetLife and Verizon Wireless.

Attending Employers:

AARC Environmental, Inc. Adult Protective Services ALS Environmental Arrow-Magnolia International, Inc. AXA Advisors Banker's Life and Casualty Beaumont Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) Boxer Property City of Deer Park Dahill A Xerox Company David McDavid Automotive Group Defense Contract Audit Agency Department of Veterans Affairs Emission Monitoring Service, Inc. Enterprise Holdings Enterprise Products Fastenal Company Federal Bureau of Prisons First Investors Corporation Green Mountain Energy Houston Baptist University - Graduate School Houston Technology Center INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA Internal Revenue Service Kroger

MetLife NASA/JSC Northwestern Mutual Null Lairson, P.C. Region 4 Alternative Certification Program S&S Professional Services Shell Federal Credit Union Siri INFOSOLUTIONS Skolix LLC Southwestern Consolidated Directory Co Inc Spring Branch ISD- Technology Target Corporation Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Texas Department of Public Safety Texas Parks and Wildlife Department The Reynolds and Reynolds Company U.S. Department of State UHCL Admissions United Allergy Labs United Fire Group United States Department of Justice University of Houston USMC Officer Selection Verizon Wireless

US Treasury reports tax credits to folks with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs)

The US Treasury recently released 2010 numbers describing the credits and taxes paid by those folks in this country who use an ITIN rather than an SSN. It's an interesting look into the costs and benefits of our current tax structure.

The IRS site describing who needs ITINs is here. It says that

IRS issues ITINs to individuals who are required to have a U.S. taxpayer identification number but who do not have, and are not eligible to obtain a Social Security Number (SSN) from the Social Security Administration (SSA).

ITINs are issued regardless of immigration status because both resident and nonresident aliens may have a U.S. filing or reporting requirement under the Internal Revenue Code.


I guess the most interesting part is the tax credit stuff.

Jeff Bezos' rocket shot not as successful as Amazon

Turns out that launching stuff into orbit is tougher than it looks. That's the future of US space exploration right there.

Apollo 18, the canceled mission

Evidently NASA withheld support from a new movie (opening tomorrow) that uses a "found footage" format (think Blair Witch Project) to tell a fictional story of the canceled Apollo 18 mission. [The REAL Apollo 18 Saturn V booster is either at JSC or Kennedy, I forget which.]

Although I liked "Red Planet" a lot, mainly for the actors involved, I can say that nothing ever goes well when NASA, or the Navy for that matter, refuses to lend support to a movie about NASA or the Navy.

Who knows whether this thing is dreck or not? I can say that it's a neato premise, because the guy that did "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon" also used (real) found footage to try to expose the moon shot as a scam*. Somebody took his idea one step further and turned it into science fiction without the conspiracy theories as a motive. Good call. I hope it works out for them.

I'm also of the opinion that anything that brings the Apollo program back to hearts and minds is probably a good thing. We should never forget the men, women and families that sacrificed here and Houston and around the world to make the moon shots happen. People gave their lives for that effort, literally, and some folks are still dealing with the pain that it caused them.

* Please don't give Bart Sibrel hits on his moonmovie.com site if you can help it. Having heard him on Coast-to-Coast and other shows back around of the time of his movie's debut, I can attest that he's probably a moron. But if you remember the controversy that the Fox specials caused about 10 years ago, you should figure that he's probably a moron who's made money with it. I put the link here so I didn't forget the rage.

S&P rates a subprime MBS higher than US debt

I know this comes as no surprise to many, but Bloomberg is reporting today that S&P has rated a subprime package bond higher than US Treasury obligations.

If you've taken my banking class you'll know that my take on the whole financial crisis is related to this: S&P and Moody's didn't know how to rate subprime MBS (and probably didn't really know how to rate REGULAR MBS) and therefore relied on the "implicit" guarantee that FHLMC and FNMA would be secured by the full faith and credit of the US taxpayer if anything went wrong. The market relied on this too. So when Lehman and others came up with their own MBS based on subprime originations, S&P and Moody's were trapped. They had to rate the new, non-GSE debt the same way (or they would look like morons). And that's what happened. That's just lazy - unless you get a meltdown, and then it's nearly criminal. At best, it cost them their reputations as fair arbiters of value and credit ratings.

After THEY abdicated their historical role, the market stepped in to provide a hedge against all the phone credit ratings: the credit default swap. The void was filled by the HUGE CDS market. Things happen for a reason, not always just because people are overtly greedy.

Salomon Brothers', Goldman, and now B of A

Warren Buffett has added Bank of America to the list of firms that Berkshire Hathaway has bailed out over the years. More in the article at Yahoo - it seems that Buffett bailed out GE Financial during the 2008 crisis as well; I had forgotten about that one.

On a related note: I'm starting to like the coverage of financial stuff at Yahoo. Especially the free reports on market ups and downs.

The "one man blue-chip bailout machine" is another good read w/video.

49% of American children on federal food assistance? I thought there was a childhood obesity problem.

Evidently ABC News has learned that almost half of the kids in this country are on government food assistance, whatever that means.

Haven't we been hearing that there is a childhood obesity epidemic in this country for years now? Which is it? CDC and other governmental bodies have bombarded us with this stuff.

New Bloomberg expose of "secret" FRB lending programs, $1.2T for Wall Street "Aristocracy"

It seems full of hyperbole to me, but when Bloomberg tallied seven of the emergency liquidity programs from 2008-2009 they came up with $1.2 trillion in total borrowing, with a large part of that going to banks from Yurrup evidently.

I haven't checked to see if this was truly "new" info, or just a rehash of what we've heard since then. As far as I can remember, there were 14 or more special liquidity programs in total, not including the Federal Home Loan Bank programs that were out there.

No, GM didn't pay everything off, and no, you can't sue them for defects on your 2007 Impala

Just thought I'd post this here so that we're not tempted to believe the hype on GM.

GM has now argued in a class action suit that it is NOT the manufacturer of the 2007 and 2008 Chevrolet Impala and therefore it isn't liable for defective suspension components. The company has responded that the new firm, New GM, was responsible only for warranty coverage. It said

"New GM did not assume responsibility for Old GM's design choices, conduct, or alleged breaches of liability under the warranty."

Huh?

Let me ask though: if New GM isn't responsible, who is? If 2008 Impalas started bursting into flames tomorrow because of a manufacturing defect, who would we sue? Doesn't that say a lot about the bankruptcy process here?

As I noted here in April of '10, this shouldn't be surprising. GM isn't the same company it was; THAT firm went out of business before paying off what it owed but after wrecking the bankruptcy precedent. This is the best proof yet of the bureaucratic double-speak on this.

Warren Buffet: Stop Coddling the Super-Rich? Not so fast there, Sparky

Warren Buffet says in a NYT op-ed that it's time to collect more from the rich folks in this country.

Unfortunately, his math doesn't work. The Tax Foundation did the math and discovered that taxing those that earning $10 million or more would only reduce the annual deficit by 12% and ease the debt burden by 2%.

Class warfare disguised as "logic" is really scary, folks. Who knows why Warren Buffet has decided to become more generous in his old age, but I don't think there's anything stopping him from writing checks to the government. The rest of us down here in the middle class, however, are already paying too many taxes and eating too many regulatory burdens.

Salon is running a series of articles where they are asking the 20 richest folks in the country if they'd pay more taxes. Mark Cuban responded that he'd like to see it spent more accurately , saved for things that needed it and not just more government waste and dependency. His response:

I have absolutely no problem paying more taxes. None.

What I have a problem with is how the money is spent. If the incremental money could be directed to defined and deserved recipients. I would be thrilled to write the check.

The problem I have is not on the revenue side, its on the expenditure side. Too much money is wasted on bureaucracy, adminis-trivia, pensions and over expansive federal employment.

So I'm a resounding yes on more taxes, but an attachment to the funding to be directly spent on approved programs. If a program doesn't deliver 95pct or better to its intended recipients, it should be put on hold until it does.

An example of what he's against can be seen in last week's announcement by SecAg Vilsak that each dollar of federal food stamps to recipients produces $1.84 in economic benefit, hence food stamps are the most quick and direct form of economic stimulus.

Nobody thought to ask how much it costs to provide a dollar of benefits, via the state and federal government, to a recipient. I bet it's more than $1.84.

(Actually, I thought unemployment benefits were the most direct form of economic stimulus. That's what Speaker Pelosi said, at least.)

Until people take the politics out of federal spending (buying votes, bailing out unions and Wall Street, buying Congress, etc.) nothing's going to solve the budget crisis.

The EPA plans enforcement of anti-coal measures over the next 18 months that will change our way of life forever

Ed Klein's WashPo article discusses some of the new measures that will take upwards of 100 coal plants offline over the next year and a half. You can find it here.

If timelines are more your type of thang, the timeline cited in the article is here.

Please note that many of these regs go back to the Bush administration or even before. And I'd bet that many of those coal plants have been grandfathered since the Clean Air Act was passed in the 70s. Regardless, I think it gives us a great illustration of how government works: it refuses to respond to a problem until after the problem has been shown to be specious in the first place.

We know now that no polar bears died because of coal-fired power. The rush to "fix" global warming looks more and more like a rush to slow us down so the rest of the world can keep up. If you can't win in the market of the minds, you can always get bureaucrats to do it for you.

For a look at the Texas side of this story, the Star-Telegram has more here.

Online may be the best for some students, has a steep learning curve for students, faculty & administrators

Inside Higher Ed published something last month that caught my eye: the Community College Research Center has again found that community college students have a higher dropout rate in online studies than otherwise.

IHE has a discussion of the situation. The actual link to the paper is here. A related study using data from Virginia is here.

The authors make the following recommendations (from the IHE link):

• Require students to take an assessment of their readiness for online instruction. (Washington State encourages, but does not require such participation.) Further, the assessment might do more, the authors write, for students who are found to be unlikely to succeed. For instance, it might automatically point them to courses they could take in person.
• Add training for faculty members on online pedagogy.
• Improve student support services. The authors note that many community colleges offer around-the-clock technical support for online students, but offer tutoring and academic online services only during limited hours. The same scheduling reasons that encourage community college students to enroll online mean that they need flexible hours on a range of services, the authors write.

Of course this isn't new (or rocket science). The overwhelming majority of evidence out there suggests that there are higher, often much higher, attrition rates for online students, and that students with developmental challenges are severely handicapped without face-to-face instruction. Better students, however, as found again in the Virginia study, still drop out more often in online classes. Again, no surprises.

It is up to faculty to make sure that our online classes match our face-to-face classes in every respect, and especially in the level of support that we offer students.

I don't know about other faculty, but my online course development has led to more resources for my face-to-face students as well. Over the last couple of years I've consistently increased the material in the course to reflect a new, online world full of information for learning about banks. There's so much material out there that I've decided to spend time making sure that students can find the most relevant (and reliable) information for their learning away from class.

On a related note:
Heck, just the other day I had a summer 5133 student cut-and-paste test answers from Wikipedia and other online sites, and now they have an F on their transcript. Surprise! SafeAssign has really helped us crack down on cheaters. Moving forward, I hope it will help folks realize the value and sense of accomplishment one feels when doing an assignment oneself.

Don't forget! Online education is going to be very popularrrr in Texas. Here's an IHE post from Feb that discusses the new $10k degree initiative, leaning on online may be their answer.

Higher Ed and lifetime earnings

From Yahoo and US News today.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, as contractors

If you know anyone from Northern Virginia (NOVA) then you're already familiar with the whole DC contractor situation. I've had plenty of students go into working for the federal government through contractors, both here in Houston and in DC (from my time at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA).

The WashPo today details the lifestyles of the rich and blameless in the communities (enclaves sounds so cool) surrounding Washington. It's usually NOT the Cinderella story that leads this piece; usually, we end up finding out that contractors have some "in" at the department they're contracting with.

The graph is the most interesting part.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs - as regulators

Investors' Business Daily is reporting today on the boom in regulatory positions in the federal government.

I know that we've placed a bunch of people in high profile state and fed jobs from UHCL in the last few years, including the Texas attorney general's office, the Social Security Administration, and others. If I were looking for a job fresh out of school it would be one of the best places to look, especially with the federal spending we've seen over the past 5 years.

A jaundiced eye on military retirement from the Pentagon

Evidently the Pentagon is getting the full court press to figure out more ways to "fundamentally change" the American way of life. In particular they're considering eliminating the half-salary retirement at 20 years, the traditional military benefit that millions have counted on and benefited from.

Evidently, not enough of those folks vote.

Since red states traditionally send more people to the services than blue states, I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Maybe it's just desperation.

Being discussed is a plan that would give every military member a contribution plan, similar to a 401K, and not just retirement for the 20-year and up folks, which would be more fair, admittedly, to those who just go in for a few years. I know plenty of folks like that, and many of them planned to go 20 and just couldn't for one reason or another. For most of us who volunteered for service, the retirement benefit was a small part of it - most of the drive was from the need to serve our community and country. When we couldn't do that it was devastating, and the loss of our pension options wasn't really on our minds at the time.

On the downside though people would have to wait for retirement age to collect. That sounds like part of the problem the rest of us have now - we're paying in and who knows if it will be there when we retire.

I agree that ownership of the funds would be a good idea, but revising the system won't be easy. And I'm not sure we'll be able to recruit without that big pension out there to spur people along.

Swiss consider tying SF to euro

Who knows if this will end up happening, but with a cup of coffee at $8.30, Swiss goods are just too expensive to outsiders these days, and some in that small country are asking why they aren't tied to the euro. The SF is 39% "overvalued" against the euro, and there's supposed to be something wrong with that.

I'd suggest that the euro is properly valued against the Swiss franc. The euro is going to have to absorb Italy, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Ireland's defaults or near collapses.

Just remember, history is a great guest speaker, but it usually doesn't top the bill.

So now that the euro is struggling, it's time to go find more wealth to drag into the union? That's wishful thinking, but it's always happened in the past. Bankrupt your system and then go find more assets/wealth/taxpayers to tap for salvation.

Big conference happening today in Yurrup on the Yurrpeen situation. We'll have to see what happens, but I wouldn't bet on the Swiss opening their currency anytime soon. I hope not - I have a strange affection toward any small mountainous country that speaks multiple languages and arms every household with training and an automatic weapon. I hope they'll stay independent from the clowns in Brussels as long as they can.

How does legislation get made? Witness the polar bear fiasco

Because of a single seven-page paper, polar bears are now considered endangered.

Sounds like the specter of drowned polar bears is having a tough time surviving in a world with better information. Just goes to show that you can't believe everything you see on teh Intarwebs.

My favorite quote: "We never mentioned global warming in the paper."

Warren Buffett, other insurers, get downgraded too

"See, it's not a big deal - everyone is getting it." Sounds stupid, but I'm sure we'll have to hear this one over the next week. S&P announced it's updating the rating outlook for several major insurers, including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

And by the way, Warren Buffett is not Jimmy Buffet's dad.

Ahhh, the good old days, when loans were loans, and Fannie was lending to everyone with a pulse

Here's a blast from the past, courtesy Joe Pags' show this morning. I think I've posted it before, too. Fannie's antics started before this, of course, but this shows how little they thought of just plunging ahead into the abyss.

By the way, Moody's hasn't downgraded Treasury debt yet. I have visions of S&P and Moody's sitting down at a table a few months ago and arm-wrestling, with the loser having to downgrade Treasury debt and getting everyone in the place audited by the IRS. See, now Moody's is the one making noise about state & local government ratings revisions. Hmmm.

S&P downgrades spread to others (Freddie, Fannie, etc.)

S&P announced today that it's current emphasis on quality is being applied to agency securities as well.

Don't panic because of the downgrade, though. Most regulated institutions won't have to sell their Treasuries or Agencies because those are usually listed without reference to credit rating in regulatory language. In other words, banks get extra credit for holding Treasuries even if they go to BBB. So we shouldn't see a massive sell-off (in fact, as of this morning Treasury prices were up because of the flight to quality effect).

On NBCs "Face the Nation" yesterday, Alan Greenspan said that the current sell-off in equities was a reaction to Italy (or Eet-lee, as a friend of mine used to say). Rachel Maddow, predictably, said that the debt default was the Tea Party's fault (at least she didn't use the other term that she likes to use on the air).

We'll see. Currently (10 AM) the Dow is down about 330.

Gulf Coast Job Fair set for 9/21 at UHCL

Students ask me every week how they can find a job in such a troubled economy. Here's a tip:

UHCL Career Services has announced the 2011 Gulf Coast Job Fair to be held on September 21st.

This is the type of thing that aspiring graduates should make a point of attending. Career Services is also holding resume workshops, interviewing workshops, and mock interviews between now and then, so please take advantage of their services. Even if you're not actively looking for a job, this is a great way to show folks how interested and interesting UHCL's students and alums are.

Even people who've already graduated can benefit from some of this stuff, so don't dismiss Career Services events just because you already have your sheepskin.

Please register if you can attend.

So far we have McDavid, Verizon and several other sponsors, but alums are always welcome to bring their firms too. Employers can get more info by contacting Caitlin Weekley at Weekley@UHCL.edu .

Food stamps at record high of 45 million

After what I posted just the other day, a report out today says that as many as 45 million used federal food stamps in May. Of course, that may be due to all the money spent on advertising them over the past three years. Hipsters seem to be using them a lot as well (and perhaps other college students, most of whom are eligible). The Economist recently published a piece about their effectiveness, pointing out that it's the single remaining federal program that doesn't require mounds of paperwork. As such, officials around the country have found that it's also subject to a great deal of cheating.

Back in the 70s, there were vigilante groups fighting cheaters. Pretty neat, huh? That's about the only thing that's changed.

Are you eligible?

In a 1966 piece in The Nation, Cloward & Piven suggested that the only way to achieve real social reform was to push every existing program to its boundaries and basically "bankrupt the system." I wonder if many people have read about that. It's pretty clear that there has been a surge in use, but the focus on bringing in more "customers" goes back to before 2006.

From Cloward & Piven (as linked):

"A welfare crisis would, of course, produce dramatic local political crisis, disrupting and exposing rifts among urban groups. Conservative Republicans are always ready to declaim the evils of public welfare, and they would probably be the first to raise a hue and cry. But deeper and politically more telling conflicts would take place within the Democratic coalition. Whites--both working-class ethnic groups and many in the middle class--would be aroused against the ghetto poor, while liberal groups, which until recently have been comforted by the notion that the poor are few and, in any event, receiving the beneficent assistance of public welfare, would probably support the movement. Group conflict, spelling political crisis for the local party apparatus, would thus become acute as welfare rolls mounted and the strains on local budgets became more severe. In New York City, where the Mayor is now facing desperate revenue shortages, welfare expenditures are already second only to those for public education."

Fannie is needs more

Fannie Mae is evidently asking for another $5.1B from taxpayers to cover quarterly losses.

Maybe they should just sell out to the Post Office.

Pell Grants are OK after budget cut - at the expense of graduate loan subsidies

Where did the money come from to save Pell Grants from the recent budget "cuts" at the federal level? I bet it was from the $22B in interest subsidies lost to grad students.

Wall St. Journal today has an article on how Pell Grants were held immune from the budget fiasco. Pell Grants are reserved for low income and at-risk undergrads.

I blogged yesterday an article about the subsidy cut. Today's article makes clear that the Pell Grants impact far more than the 1.5 million grad students who will be hurt by the subsidy loss.

Note that one of the Congresscritters who were worried about this thinks that Pell Grants raise tuition. That's a wonderful observation. Sort of like how Fannie and Freddie fueled the rise in home prices in some areas. The Law of Unintended Consequences is completely lost on the morons within the Beltway. [I'm convinced that many of them know EXACTLY what they're doing, and they don't care.]

Is anyone surprised at this point?

"Silent" Bank Run in Greece?

Article from the UK today.

CFO Magazine: Women in finance need sponsors to move to the top

One thing that our alums and recruiters tell us over and over, without fail, is that having a mentor (or mentors) is crucial to your long-term success in your career. I have mentors at UHCL, but also all over the world - people whose opinion I value, and who I can count on to give me the straight skinny on any question I ask. And they count on me the same way sometimes; mentoring is never a one-way street.

CFO magazine has just published an article about how women, in particular, need a "champion" or "sponsor" to rise above others in an organization. That's just another type of mentoring, and it's probably all about the certification function as much as anything, another form of credentialing. For all of our degrees, and varied accomplishments, every professional needs testimonies and promoters, but it's even more important for women.

This is the kind of thing that all of us need to pay attention to - good talent only knocks once.

Business Week: About that National Debt Thing, "It Gets Worse"

BW's Opening Remarks for the 7/27/11 issue is titled "It Gets Worse." It highlights something I've tried to impress upon a generation (it seems) of students - no matter what our national debt, it's the difference between inflows and outflows, and commitments, that matter. The fiscal gap is the real issue, and it's not about to be overcome anytime soon unless DC changes its dialog, and even its vocabulary on this.

To quote:

The US is in danger of reaching a generational tipping point at which older Americans have the clout to vote themselves benefits that sap the strength of the younger generation - benefits that can never be repeated... Senior citizens are being told by their own lobbyists, repeatedly, that any attempt to rein in the cost of Social Security and Medicare is an unjust attack on earned benefits... Similar messages aimed at Democratic voters make the same charge against Republicans.

Unfortunately, many folks seem to believe that junk.

I'm a firm believer that as things progress many of the productive folks in the economy will choose to be less productive if they can't control the marginal benefit of that extra production. I can also see that many folks are already giving in to the idea that the government should provide for them - food stamps rolls are up over the past three years, and a big part of that is because state and federal government agencies are spending beaucoup advertising dollars to root out everyone who might be eligible for that aid and get them to apply. I know folks who have applied even though they didn't need it, but they were pressured to by social workers, right here in Houston. I've read about college students (without families) on food stamps. Hello? Something's got to give, and once the productive here wake up and smell what's cooking, they are going to pay for less and less over time.

In the meantime: Retirement? What's that? The recent model of retirement is done for. Most folks of my generation and younger should expect to expire at the podium; there won't be any retirement for us without some drastic changes in the economic realities facing this country. Will that bring resentment against the Boomers? You bet. But worse, that will bring resentment against us from our own children. They'll want to know why we didn't do anything to stop the impending calamity, and their questions will be sound. Enjoy your time with them now, because once they're a bunch of wage slaves with a lower standard of living they might not be as accepting of their situation.

I'd like to remain optimistic, but the recent spending deal doesn't let me do that. I still see a lot of good in this country, in our communities and families especially, but I also see the challenges that we face, as a society and economy. And things are scary. The difficult decisions on national spending & debt are yet to come, and it appears that we lack the political will to fix things. America is a great, unique experiment, but the Petrea dish is getting moldy at this point, just as John Adams said it would.

Debt Hike Bill Signed Behind Closed Doors

From the administration that promised "unprecedented disclosure," we have the signing of the debt bill. No press? Or, just "some" press.

Federal subsidies of grad student loan interest to end

Hey! Looks like the debt deal will cancel $22 Billion in student loan interest subsidies, which means no more deferrals until after graduation - borrowers will accrue interest from the date of the loan. For a change.

Note that this doesn't mean you'll have to start paying back until you get out of school, it just means that interest will build up even though you're not making payments yet. Different from how it was last week.

Full disclosure: I think anything that encourages people to get their PhD is a good thing, otherwise we'd end up with only the folks at Haahvaad getting their PhDs. The horror! I received interest deferrals while in school, that was just part of the deal. I also taught multiple college classes for $10k per year as a TA; that was part of the deal too.

The GAO's "audit" of the Fed has arrived

The GAO has released its audit of the Federal Reserve. The 266-page page-turner can be found here.

If you find anything surprising here, please send me an email.

Bernie Sanders' interpretation is here. Nothing the senator says is surprising anymore.

DVD drives are on their way out - Apple

The latest news from Apple is that the Mac Mini (desktop) has lost it's DVD drive. Also, they dropped the MacBook line (that was their low-end laptop) and kept the MacBook Air.

The MacBook Air is the closest thing to an iPad with a keyboard that I've seen, so that one makes sense.

Evidently the MacBook Pro still has it's DVD drive (Superdrive), but one should wonder if that's not long for this world, too.

Remember, Apple was the first to drop the floppy (iMac) for USB, and the first to drop the CD for DVD. And the first to drop Firewire (and use it, too) for that matter.

George Soros to close hedge fund to avoid disclosure

The Financial Times (UK) is reporting that George Soros will restrict his Quantum Fund to insiders only, mainly in order to avoid mandated disclosure under new regulations.

Surprising? It shouldn't be. This is similar to what we've seen happen over and over again. In FINC 4331 we discuss how hedge funds are driven offshore, and how investment banks went to London after Glass-Steagall was passed back in the '30s.

Another note: Soros is content with asking for more regulation, but only if it doesn't apply to him. He seems to spend a great deal of time and energy convincing the rest of us that things such as global warming taxes and financial controls are good things, and then he uses his massive resources to figure out how to profit from or avoid those regulations. This behaviour among industrialists is a side effect of what economists have traditionally called the "mixed economy". Historians have also referred to it as "fascism" on occasion.

The Wealth Gap Widens, by Race

Pew Research Center is reporting a 20 to 1 wealth gap between whites and blacks, and an 18 to 1 wealth gap for Hispanic families versus their white counterparts.

I'm not sure what this tells us, but it can't be a good thing to have that kind of disparity in the long term. Is it a consequence of the War on Poverty and Great Society? A consequence of the subprime crisis? Unknowable. One thing is clear, though: throwing money at poverty hasn't helped. If anything, this article makes it clear that it has hurt certain groups over time.

"Fast and Furious" sting produces results; guns show up at Mexican crime scenes

I think I've written about this before, but the BATFE's "Fast and Furious" program, where they let semi-auto assault-like rifles get into the hands of known criminal associates, has backfired even more. To date, nobody has lost their job over this, by the way.

This is just another example of government gone wild, and how an agenda can backfire. There is no doubt in my mind that the original intent of this program was to allow a crackdown on autoloading rifle sales here after showing them turn up in Mexico. Thank goodness some brave folks blew the whistle on this operation.

What is poverty? A new study puts things in perspective

The Heritage Foundation (a conservative think tank) has recently published a study that outlines how "well" the poor in this country are actually doing relative to 20+ years ago. It's interesting to see how our definition of "poor" has changed over time in this country.

I'd argue that children who are trapped in ineffective schools are also "poor," but the authors don't measure that quality of life issue. Not directly in any case.

Another govt-backed green company folds. Who knew?

Yet another of the "green miracle" firms has folded, but only after eating up a bunch of government grant dollars. Read about it here.

Is anyone surprised? I agree with government-sponsored basic research, to a point, but some of this pie-in-the-sky green stuff isn't basic research. I guarantee that SOMEONE came out smelling rosy on this one.

What ever happened to the Twentieth Century Motor Company, anyway?

Why do we expect anything different?

I guess it was different in the Great Depression, when people were ashamed to be poor (heck, that was just a few years ago) and humble, grateful for handouts. It's depressing to think that the dependency is so ingrained now that people are fighting over Section 8 housing vouchers in Dallas.

Obviously vouchers are a danger to the community and must be curtailed!

Last flight of the STS

135 missions, each one the equivalent of strapping a tactical nuclear bomb on one's back and hoping for the best.

Today's shuttle launch is the last flight of one of the most successful engineering feats of mankind. I hope everyone takes a few moments to think about that crew and their families and the crew of the ISS while the shuttle is up.

You can keep up with what's going on at the NASA Human Space Flight page, here, and read up on all of the others, as well as the glory days of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

UH-Clear Lake actually houses the Johnson Space Center archives, and there are plenty of materials online, including oral histories dictated by some of the original heroes themselves. For example, you can read transcripts of interviews with pioneering folks such as Glynn Lunney online at the JSC archives. Not everyone at NASA has had enough time to write a book about their experiences.

[Glynn Lunney, as you may recall, was the flight controller who took over after the Apollo 13 explosion and decided to have the astronauts use the lunar module as a lifeboat. More at Wikipedia (which seems to have most of it right).]

Despair not, ye faithful! NASA has faced some dark times before, and I'm sure they will again. The shuttle has always been slammed as a mission to nowhere by Gene Cernan and others ( with the ISS now that's hard to remember) and so now we get the chance to move on.

Where ever we end up moving to, I wonder if we'll meet the Chinese there.

Keep in mind one simple fact: Hundreds of artists have recorded "Purple Haze" over the years, but Jimi Hendrix did it first.

He "did it all for the unions."

Ron Bloom, the White House czar behind the auto bailout, is in dutch with Congress over something he claimed he never said. Two different sources have stated that he said it, although one suggests that he was just making a funny.

The fact that the UAW ended up making out like bandits in the auto bailout is well documented elsewhere. Regardless of whether such a comment was made in jest, it's still in poor taste. The auto bailout will end up changing the face of US industry, and probably not for the better. It's the cavalier attitude of some of the folks in Washington, on both sides of the aisle, that is getting the populace rankled these days.

NYT article on bird study relates to childhood bullying?

"Bird Study Suggests Effects of Childhood Bullying Don't Last". Huh? I've linked to the mobile version here (which is all the time you should waste on this). Maybe birds have a little different response to parental bullying than humans, and less memory. Who knows?

I hate to be critical, but I really can't see generalizing a bird study just to capitalize on the current buzzword "bullying". The whole bullying thing is probably bogus to start with, but to stretch so far for an article is amazing.

FBI knows where moon dust belongs, why aren't we getting a shuttle?

Seems that someone was trying to sell some Apollo 11 moon dust online.

Look where they returned it to: JSC in HOUSTON. Not much slips by the G-men these days. Houston must be the home of the space program or something.

Students struggle with basic history

WSJ reports that students these days struggle to understand the basics of American history and this country's role in the world.

I'm not surprised with the findings, but I'd argue that they have little need to understand, and that's most of the problem. When dissent or reflection on events and policies is openly punished, why do we need to learn about anything other than the "party line" of the moment?

People with different viewpoints, even those based on historical facts, are discouraged at every turn in modern life. Some of us are used to it - we have become the Lieutenant Columbos of our world. "Just one more thing..." Another classic: at the Dean Martin Roast.

Asking uncomfortable but simple questions is our job in the Socratic classroom, so it comes naturally to other aspects of university and public life. The problem is when the folks responsible can't answer those questions.

Media witch hunt, Part Two

[Part One began, I think, when the guy moved in next door to Sarah Palin to research his book. Creepy.]

I'm no fan of Sarah Palin - I'm sure she's a nice person and I think she's honest. She seems like a real person and not some political creation. I'll give her a fair shake if she runs for national office. I think it's telling, though, that a bunch of her opponents are terrified of her by looking at the level of scrutiny she's receiving after being the governor a few years ago.

There's news out today discussing the emails that MSNBC and others finally obtained under court order from Palin's governors job. Something like 24,000 printed emails are being combed through to find political dirt.

Now you'd think that MSNBC and others would have their hands full writing about all of the corruption and incompetence in state and federal government, or, heck, even writing about some moron who sends naughty pictures through Twitter (dumb). But instead of telling us about the economy, trends, etc. they're focused on sifting through the detritus of Palin's governance.

Don't they have anything BETTER to write about? How about the Libya situation, or Yemen (as of a few days ago)? What about the situation with Israel? Or they could even find more pressing matters domestically if they looked, I'm sure.

The irony is that the mainstream has refused to sift through the minutia of stuff such as the Chrysler or GM bailouts, assuring us that there was "nothing to see here, go back to business as usual." Stuff that may actually have historical repercussions in bankruptcy cases. How about looking at the connection between state governments and public worker unions - you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours and we'll screw the taxpayers at the same time. Reporters should be busy with this kind of stuff. Corruption is everywhere.

Another irony: during the election, they couldn't sift through the years and years of public service history for our sitting president, because there wasn't "years and years" to go through. It's more like "poof," you're a Senator, surprise! Hey, run for president. "Poof." Just pure political magicalness.

The current media furor over Palin illustrates that those who oppose her (and control the media) fear her greatly. I'm not sure why. They must know (or think they know) something that the rest of us don't know.