Jan 9
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Kodak is going under after a hundred years as the beating heart of photography in much of the world. Like the makers of buggy whips and all others who fail to face and master new technology, the film giant has fallen into bankruptcy, a hapless victim of digital picture-making. But shed no tears for this [...]
Dec 19
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Janus has remained past Romel: he just moved to Washington. The U.S. opened its borders to Mexicam truckers almost two decades ago with the North American Free Trade Act but under pressure from unions and businessmen fearing competition, it has refused them entry. U.S. consumers pay the higher prices resulting, plus the penalty tariffs slapped on [...]
Oct 27
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The Obama Energy Department is really creating jobs; it just loaned a carmaker $529 million of taxpayer money so it can start building cars…in Finland. Car Company Gets $529 Loan; Builds Cars in Finland tells about it. That sort of targeting likely explains why the stimulus missed and maybe accounts for some of the faith that [...]
Oct 24
One recent morning, I read an interview with Jeffrey Berwick, finance maverick and world wanderer, where he claimed that Americans are the most enslaved people in history (I would add by majority vote after brainwashing, but you have to actually live in the U.S. to understand that). After the knee-jerk, But, We’re free and what [...]
Oct 22
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Obama and friends are bragging about the correctness of their decisions; Inc. just ran: The Best Countries for Starting a Business Now which somehow fails to list the U.S. in its top ten. So we conclude Obama’s intent must be to kill off American domestic business; that will support the claims they’re making… To be fair, [...]
Sep 28
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Why we’re hurting and the honest prospects of recovery are wrapped up in two simple facts by U.S. News and World Report: In the last ten years, our economy created 400,000 new jobs…while we added 28 million new job-eligible people. 15 Stunning Statistics About the Jobs Market explains that and much more you likely don’t want [...]
Sep 21
Of late on any number of conservative blogs, commentators and those responding have correctly railed against the White House’s “stimulus” programs, aka the Recovery Act and all peripherals. Grants.gov lists all federal government grants and on that site, it is not difficult to see how a good amount of that cash has been spent on [...]
Sep 20
This morning I beg the indulgence of my fellow ConClubbers as I am compelled to pass on this post from Red State “Take Action: America’s Job Creators Are About to Be Sucker Punched & You Have Until Wednesday to Comment” from poster LaborUnionReport. According to LaborUnionReport, the pending legislation will put into law the push [...]
Sep 14
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The following is the tip of the iceberg of an untold story of corporate consolidation and corruption in regards to some of the food we eat. It is one that is largely unreported, but hardly unknown. This account is not a complete rendering, but a taste of what forces control not only our food supply, [...]
Sep 2
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Just as his Environmental Price Augmentation (EPA) folks were handing out a new energy cost boost regulation, our Prez shut them off in favor of more people working rather than less. An excellent move and one showing clearly his interest in reelection. Obama Halts EPA Regulation tells the details. While he deserves credit, not complaint for this, [...]
Aug 30
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Our American middle class has been decimated, shrinking 10% since 1980 and the shrinkage continues as the low income class expands with the displaced middle folk. 34 Signs That Point To A Rapidly Shrinking American Middle Class provides a depressing plenty of evidence. Worse, the evidence says clearly that the trend will not reverse within the lifetime [...]
Aug 27
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We have at least one change from Obama; the Justice Department raided Gibson Guitar for using American labor in its Tennessee plants, not for using illegals. Feds Raid Gibson Guitar for Using American Labor provides details. Seems the fancy rosewood in some guitars is imported from India-quite legally-and India has a law that requires Indians to [...]
Aug 11
And now back to our regularly scheduled and pretty much justified paranoia…. The last week has been a whirlwind news-wise (are we sure it’s August?), what with the budget “deal” where no one got what they wanted other than the current Resident of the White House and the subsequent U.S. Government Securities/Bond notes downgrade to [...]
Aug 5
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As I perused the digests sent very conveniently to my email this morning, I came across yet another article from a strict constitutionalist with a list of tasks that should be accomplished to bring government spending in line. As usual with these sorts of articles, the idea of “selling all non-defense related government lands” was [...]
Jul 29
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I’ve been toying with a post on the whole budget/spending soap opera. Everyone else is doing it, why not join in, right? My angle was going to be defense spending and that so many of the cuts on the table are defense related rather than entitlements. See, in the sky-high view of things, defense [...]
Jul 16
Does anyone else remember when saving energy was Dad walking around the house turning off lights? Or waiting until the last possible day in June before caving in and turning on the AC? Or having a single window unit and mom and dad, all the kids and the dog sleeping in the same bedroom during [...]
In my daily perusal of various article digests, I came across an article from Yahoo!News titled Down but not Out: Voices of the Long-Term Unemployed. Having more than one family member who has not had an actual full time job in some time, and as I am about to join the ranks of the underemployed soon myself (the job still exists, but my hours are being slashed – and worse, the person “in charge” has no clue about some of my job functions that are being eliminated, the ones that will pull us out of the mess we’re in eventually), I started reading the article with some interest.
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The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill last week which requires our “green” president to speed up his decision on approving a pipeline that would deliver Canadian oil to the United States – while the Chinese are investing in another pipeline that could send that same oil to China. The O-man foot-dragging? What a shock. Who knew?
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Jun 23
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Under normal circumstances, the patent office is not a big news maker. It just isn’t. The procedure has been pretty plain over the decades: come up with an idea, develop it a little, make a model or write it down, fill out patent paperwork, submit it to the patent office with the fee, wait while [...]
Jun 20
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Today’s coverage of the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. vs. Betty Dukes, et.al., presents a delicious microcosm of the state of American journalism. More or less, need a quote guaranteed to stoke some fires? Find “experts.” I thought I had read some of the dumbest, most inane and downright stupid comments over the years, but the “experts” [...]
Jun 20
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Out here in flyover country, all summer, quite a number of us have been playing a game of sorts – how far can we make $20 worth of gas go. Honestly. Once a week, I put $20 worth of gas in the tank, combine trips as much as possible and leave the windows open when [...]
May 31
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El Presidente Obama will be wanting to give eleven million Latinos American citizenship when he asks for his comprehensive immigration bill. ‘Been there and done that’ just a few years back. It didn’t improve the immigration problem. It didn’t stop the flood at the southwestern border. We merely said you can be citizens because you [...]
May 12
Just when you thought gentlemanly business competition was coming back to America…. Back in the ‘90’s, when all the bank mergers were happening and there was a massive consolidation of the defense industry going on, The Onion featured a headline that read something to the effect that Business has been Consolidated to Six Corporations. That’s [...]
I thought the attached was an interesting opinion piece. The most interesting thing is that Mr. Geithner is still in denial…
Geithner Downgrades His Own Credibility to Junk: Jonathan Weil
Well, we’re not quite at the oft-projected $2,000 mark, but we’re getting there…
Gold Tops $1,500 on Outlook for Escalating U.S. Debt, Dollar
Oh, yeah… “We’re all about promoting economic growth and job creation!” You Dems aren’t fooling anyone! When the financial experts (Standard & Poor’s) say you’re out of line, you can no longer blame “bi-partisan” crap, can you? Your reckless spending is taking this country down the drain! Wake up!
Here we go… The slippery slope that the U.S. just may never recover from… How sad… Will the Dems be moved at all by this? Do they even understand (or care) what a negative credit rating means?!! Assholes…
It is always nice to see politicians actually doing the right thing. Good for the House Republicans! Anyone with any sense knows derivatives require no government regulation. Simply put, if the investments are too difficult for you to understand, you need not get involved. Do your own homework and don’t look to a group of non-financial lawmakers to save you from yourself! My only hope is that they continue to “push” the rules right off of the table!
Many good people are working on their own alternatives to Amazon’s proposed locker service (Michael Robertson, for example), but it’s nice to see a heavyweight take on the music industry regarding lockers, places where one can store their music and access it at any location they wish to. The music industry, record labels especially, will either have to get on board or watch their sales plummet due to continued piracy. The rip-off game is stopping, whether they like it or not.
Billboard Magazine’s Ed Christman discusses the topic further here.
Cross-posted at A Miscellany of Tasteful Music.
Apr 8
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Okay… It had a rocky start, at best, but how is this supposed to work under a Communist umbrella? Hong Kong’s park hasn’t exactly been a bed of roses for Disney, either. Will a Disney theme park in Shanghai again equal millions of dollars down the drain? Only time will tell, but I promise that [...]
Mar 30
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In the news last week was the surprise acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T. NEW YORK/FRANKFURT, March 20 (Reuters) – AT&T Inc (T.N) struck a $39 billion deal to buy Deutsche Telekom AG’s (DTEGn.DE) T-Mobile USA, to create a new U.S. mobile market leader and bolster its constrained network against a near insatiable appetite for videos [...]
Mar 14
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As expected, I am already seeing platforms seeking funds to support the rebuilding of Japan’s infrastructure following the recent earthquake(s) and tsunami(s). I truly believe the tragedies seen in Japan to be some of the most costly (both in lives and dollars) in history. My concern is to what extent the world can offer assistance. The [...]
Now, THIS is gonna be fun! I actually think he has a case! Let’s watch! As if we have any choice…
I’m glad I was able to bring this to our readers first! Great news for Boeing and its stakeholders!
Well, if you were foolishly staying away from Boeing shares because of the Dreamliner delays, you must be absolutely sick right about now… Shares jumped more than $3.25, or almost 5%, today on this news, in post-close trading.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-24/boeing-wins-35b-air-force-tanker-deal.html
I wonder why the authors of this article won’t speculate on Americans’ distaste with Wal-Mart and its Chinese base… Wal-Mart is blaming the economy for lost revenue, but history has shown that Wal-Mart thrives during economic down-turns! What could this possibly mean, when Americans turn away from Wal-Mart when they’re down on their luck? Don’t expect American patronage to ever grow…
Kudos to Mr. Branson and Virgin!
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-17/virgin-america-to-start-flights-from-chicago-o-hare.html
I just spent the last hour watching President Obama field questions from the Press in what was, I believe, his first press conference since December. The hottest topics, of course, were the recent budget proposal and the events in Egypt.
I now find myself scratching my head while trying to figure what new information I gained by watching. I think the answer is, “nothing”. The questions were so ambiguous and were left wide open to vague answers. I am not so interested in Egypt’s issues, but where were the tough questions on the budget?
Are these reporters so excited about sitting with the President that they are unable to check him? Sure, so-called “tax reform” was merely mentioned as the most effective way to reduce the U.S. deficit. Obama also mentioned some “painful” cuts to social programs that he admitted weren’t “working”. How can it be painful to make cuts to programs that don’t work? Give me a break!
All I got from the conference was that Obama was carrying on with his original agenda and had no remorse whatsoever for placing the cancellation of the Bush tax cuts back into the fold. He fully intends to continue with his original platform.
It was reported today that China’s GDP is on target to overtake that of the U.S. in just fourteen years. Is anyone out there even the slightest bit concerned about this?!! Wake up!!! Oh, yeah, but let’s just tax the hell out of U.S. businesses until they have no choice but to leave! Let’s not protect our intellectual property! And, most of all, let’s continue to support other countries (rather than our own) with U.S. taxpayer funds! Oh, wait! There’s more! Tax the hell out of industrious Americans to the point where they will no longer have an incentive to work hard and contribute to new innovations! The list of our poor decisions is long…
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aLzIiCGRPrP4
Sure, I just gave President Obama a “pat on the back” for his handling of the recent and ongoing events in Egypt. His back-handed budget tricks will receive no such accolades, however. Just when you think he may have actually been listening, he puts this crap in front of Congress. By “crap”, I mean the tax increases for so-called “high-wage earners” and American companies. Does his right hand know what the left is doing? His recent appointments of corporate executives to his advisory panel may indeed be a smoke-screen, as predicted. How disappointing. The actual budget has suddenly become a side issue to the budget process. Could this possibly pass after the tax increases were just shot down? This guy has some nerve! And, Congresspersons, on both sides of the aisle, need to think twice on this one. Oh, and by the way… Just because you sat together at the State of the Union address doesn’t mean there is no longer an “aisle”. Regardless, you WILL be indiscriminately fired if you vote for this “budget”. I don’t care where you sit.
McAfee Report: Chinese Hackers Attack Oil Companies
Several financial documents, bidding contracts and copied proprietary industrial processes were obtained by the hackers
McAfee Inc. announced that five multinational gas and oil companies and seven other unidentified companies have had their computer systems broken into by Chinese hackers, where sensitive information such as bidding plans have been stolen.
Dmitri Alperovitch, McAfee’s vice president for threat research, named the attacks “Night Dragon” in McAfee’s report.
“It speaks to quite a sad state of our critical infrastructure security,” said Alperovitch. “These were not sophisticated attacks, yet they were very successful in achieving their goals.”
According to the article, one attack method was “infected e-mails sent to executives within the companies.” It sounds like they targeted the weakest links there. Apparently this has been going on for more than a year.
I cannot wait to hear the news tonight. The suspense is killing me… And, I sure hope it lasts! It seems the Vice-President will take control. But, let’s not hold our breath…
Let’s put the spending issue into perspective. Say I am a conservative, thinking good fiscal sense is the right path. My congressman (woman) may well be of like mind. Let’s say I support a high-speed rail system running through my city. Sure, data shows it would improve the economy and, perhaps environmental concerns, in my area. Yet, my congressperson says to me, “hey, it’s a great idea, but we simply cannot afford it at this time; let’s leave it on the table for another time”…
In the meantime, other, Democrat-controlled regions put forth similar plans, regardless of finances…
At the end of the day, the fiscally-irresponsible areas HAVE the expensive programs, at the increased expense of neighboring taxpayers, and the responsible parties (those who chose to wait) suffer because their time may never come, simply because they must now pay for the “greed” of neighboring districts and their default…
So, with this in mind… let me ask you this… Why should anyone ever wait? Republicans and Democrats are simply in a race to get whatever they can WHEN they can!
As long as ANY party chooses to spend more than they have, NO party can possibly act responsibly and hope to serve its constituents honorably, can it?
This is interesting. The idea is fascinating on a public relations platform and I am curious to see what tangible benefits unravel.
I feel I must post this story as a follow-up. I think this solidifies my concern of future non-Jobs Apple innovation.
I have always heard that history repeats itself because no one listened the first time around, and today I have found additional evidence to support that claim. Scroll through some of the Time magazine covers, specifically from 1976-1980 and take a look at the headlines, the people, the concerns of the day. From socialism to the war on terror – it’s all there in vivid color. I recommend starting here and moving forward for a really interesting look at, well… Time.
Ouch.
What an incredible display of a media feeding frenzy. From the second there was blood in the water, there was no stopping the onslaught of media sharks, tabloid bottom feeders, and general all-purpose clean up crews around this guy. But the hardest hitting media IMHO comes from the advertisements that came before the fall.
Relevant advertisement titles sound quite different in light of the latest events – some make the ads seem more applicable, some make common golf expressions sound scandalous.
As always, I try to include a musical rendition that encapsulates the evening. This song was the first song we heard that night on the jukebox. It was popular when we were in college and the group happens to be from Fort Collins. So hit play, sit back, and envision three guys sitting at some hole in the wall American Legion bar.
Back to the Duke of Windsor Wednesday evening at 6:30. The Grand Triune will be in attendance. Guru, you in town?
ClimateGate – Climate center’s server hacked revealing documents and emails.
Britain’s Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia, suffered a data breach in recent days when a hacker apparently broke into their system and made away with thousands of emails and documents. The stolen data was then posted to a Russian server and has quickly made the rounds among climate skeptics. The documents within the archive, if proven to be authentic, would at best be embarrassing for many prominent climate researchers and at worst, damning.
The contents of the emails and data seem to be authentic, but I will withhold judgement until verified.
The emails contain an array of discussions including what appear to be concerted efforts to withhold data. Just as troubling is conversations that allude to potentially manipulating climate data to “hide the decline” of temperatures seen in the last decade.
Will be checking for further confirmation. If true, this will blow a hole right through the climate change consortium.
Update: The story is gaining more traction as the day progresses. It has been picked up by the New York Times along with some other major publications. And as always, Anthony at wattsupwiththat.com has a pretty good read on one of the major issues coming to light.
When smoothing these time series, the Team had a problem: actual reconstructions “diverge” from the instrumental series in the last part of 20th century. For instance, in the original hockey stick (ending 1980) the last 30-40 years of data points slightly downwards. In order to smooth those time series one needs to “pad” the series beyond the end time, and no matter what method one uses, this leads to a smoothed graph pointing downwards in the end whereas the smoothed instrumental series is pointing upwards — a divergence. So Mann’s solution was to use the instrumental record for padding, which changes the smoothed series to point upwards as clearly seen in UC’s figure (violet original, green without “Mike’s Nature trick”).
The plot thickens.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — China’s foreign-exchange policy risks “unwinding” some of the progress made in reducing global trade imbalances during the financial crisis, the U.S. Treasury said Thursday in its latest report on foreign-exchange trading.
But the department repeated its previous finding that China was not formally manipulating its currency.
The absence of a finding of manipulation is important. Under the legislation prompting the review, a finding of manipulation would set off a series of steps that might end in the U.S. imposing duties on Chinese imports.
The U.S. said it was not pleased with Chinese foreign-exchange policy.
”The rigidity of the renminbi and the reacceleration of reserve accumulation are serious concerns which should be corrected to help ensure a stronger, more balanced global economy,” the Treasury report said.
To outside analysts, China has clearly pegged the currency to the dollar.
Carl Weinberg, chief international economist at High Frequency Economics, said the People’s Bank of China has pegged the yuan at around 6.82 RMB to the dollar since July 2008.
That followed three years of steady yuan appreciation.
They keep buying dollars. All these countries posturing around FOREX and trade. Making threats and then professing friendship and the will to work together. I have to tell you it just amazes this hillbilly. Why have China, the USA and the world been trying to increase domestic consumption within China? China will have to deal with an aging population soon. Deficits run amuck. What are we gonna do? Oh the humanity! It is the end of Western Civilization! Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.
The best is below the fold…
“The American people have not become less capable of entrepreneurship,” Summers, who heads Obama’s National Economic Council, said in last week’s interview. “They have not become less dedicated to hard work, and the productive potential of this economy has not declined.”
Lawrence Summers, President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser
“It’s one year ago today I could see that the philosophical issues of those who lead us isn’t in lock step with those who put them there and probably that will change,” Santelli added.
That provoked CNBC “Squawk Box” co-host Carl Quintanilla to ask Santelli if he participated inthe Sept. 12 march in Washington, D.C. Santelli said claimed ignorance, since they were ignored by the media in his estimation.
“What demonstrations? I watched network news, I didn’t see any,” Santelli said. “What demonstrations are you talking about?”
I love those Santelli rants. Some members of the conservative media are picking up on his observation that the MSM did a wonderful job in downplaying the march in D.C. on 9/12. But the more important point may be here:
“What I said is that most of what they did is the same thing as papering up a situation in the darkest of times, where they’re going to claim that the credit crisis is fixed and over, as the current administration does many times,”
He goes on to point out that even after all the money was thrown at the financial system, no one really knows just how many toxic derivatives are still outstanding. One year later, have things really improved, or have we just delayed the inevitable?
While the ” Too big to fail” banks continue to get even bigger, the small banks keep falling by the wayside. Some are predicting as many as 500 more small and regional banks will fail before the end of next year. While this is just a natural boom/bust business cycle, aren’t we just setting ourselves up for the next big bubble. If there is one area in which the financial services industry excels, it is in the ability to manipulate the public’s short term memory and appeal to our greed.
“The first wave of the big banks were the securitizations,” he said. “The regional banks are the ones now going down. They mostly didn’t have much in the way of securitization but they all have construction loans, they have development loans, they all have loans on little shopping centers and they’ve got that kind of portfolio very heavily.”
Here is the news for what it is worth to all the populist middle class people who don’t pay any federal income tax anyway.
July 22 (Bloomberg) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s repayments to the government of last year’s bailout money, including an agreement today to repay warrants, generated a 23 percent annualized return for U.S. taxpayers.
Goldman Sachs agreed to the Treasury’s request for $1.1 billion to repay warrants the government received when it invested $10 billion in the New York-based firm last October. The payment is in addition to $318 million in preferred dividends.
That 23 percent return compares with the 42 percent surge in Goldman Sachs’s share price since October, and the 5.1 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Goldman’s decision follows criticism of the bank by lawmakers who questioned its decision to set aside a record $11.4 billion to pay employees in the first half of the year.
The company’s warrant transaction “was the best deal for taxpayers yet,” said Linus Wilson, a finance professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Lenny Dykstra filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy today.
A little more than a year ago Dykstra was being profiled in the New Yorker, sharing his stock-picking wizardry with Jim Cramer’s acolytes and generally being regarded as a financial whiz whose business acumen was hidden behind a tobacco-chewing exterior. But just as our economic system wasn’t as healthy as it appeared in the best of times, Dykstra’s finances weren’t quite as good as they appeared on the outside.
For Con Club readers, it has actually been 2 years since I first discussed Mr. Dykstra’s burgeoning “empire”. Of course, what sounds to good to be true, probably is.
The 46-year-old Dykstra, a former World Series champ with the Mets and spark plug with the Phillies, faces upward of 20 suits from creditors coast to coast, most related to The Players Club, a problem-plagued magazine he launched last year.
Among those claiming they were stiffed by the player known as “Nails” are a pair of private jet rental companies, his brother, aLas Vegasprinting business, a former lawyer and several former employees.
Dykstra’s wife is also suing him for divorce, and his $18 million California mansion is in foreclosure.
Lenny is known for his risk taking both on and off the field. Although all the financial details have not been released, some have speculated that his penchant for “deep in the money” calls may have helped lead him to this point.
Lenny made it look easy when things were going up. I don’t necessarily disagree with his strategy, it has a time and place for some people, but he touted it as nearly fool proof. He twisted the risk into “only the amount you paid for the call” which is 100% accurate. However, the amount you pay for a DITM option is quite a lot. True, it is less than the stock itself, but it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to lose 100% of your money in a stock. It is far more likely that you’d lose 100% of your capital in a DITM option.
Who knows? Maybe he is just following in Donald Trump’s footsteps.
In Lenny’s own words, to those who question where the world according to Lenny is going next, “Fuck them. We will see who is laughing, yeah, when you want a loan.”
Lenny, you may want to rethink that statement.
Does anyone wanna buy a pig in a poke?
June 26 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama prodded lawmakers to approve a “historic” bill to limit greenhouse-gas emissions as part of intensifying lobbying efforts for a vote in the U.S. House that could come today.
…Obama, in his public comments, called the measure “absolutely critical” to ensure a clean-energy economy that would help the U.S. “be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy.” He also predicted “a close vote” on it.
June 26 (Bloomberg) — America’s biggest oil companies will probably cope with U.S. carbon legislation by closing fuel plants, cutting capital spending and increasing imports.
“It will lead to the opportunity for foreign sources to bring in transportation fuels at a lower cost, which will have an adverse impact to our industry, potential shutdown of refineries and investment and, ultimately, employment,”
AXcess News – Washington – President Barack Obama vowed to close tax loopholes on foreign investments Monday, even going so far as to threaten banks with action if they didn’t cooperate in identifying American foreign investments.
The Democratic administration of President Obama will pursue American businesses and individual taxpayers who use foreign loopholes in investing abroad to avoid paying federal income taxes. The move will affect major US companies such as Caterpillar.
Washington, DC — Spain’s decade-long program to subsidize the creation and continued existence of so-called green jobs through a massive infusion of taxpayer resources “has cost many jobs,” former President Bill Clinton admitted to a Spanish audience at the European University of Madrid this week, according to the Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo
At noon today, I called DFV to arrange our bi-annual Conclub Conclave. After several tense minutes of negotiation, we were able gather a quorum by getting both Dave and Steve to agree to appear. These are the minutes of that gathering.
6:45 DFV and E arrive at the Cork in Ft. Collins. They scan the place, settle in, and order a couple of Bud Lights. It is the beginning of the second period of game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
7:25 Dave arrives. He fails to bring his usual trinkets. DFV and E pay no mind. Usual pleasantries are exchanged. Shots of Jaeger bombs flow smoothly
7:35 E goes to help rummage up some food. Pizza, Wings, and cheese fries are on the menu. Pittsburgh is up 2 – 0.
7:45 Food is served. Dave elects not to eat. Discussion turns to why Dave and DFV refuse to post their required posts. DFV falls back on the excuse of no liberals posting = no fun. Wes is gone. Andre is gone. Phooey can’t post. Therefore, there is no enlightening discussion. E counters that their posts spark the discussion regardless of the politics. Dave is about 80% done with his book and uses this as an excuse (along with his farming operations).
8:30 The Pens win the Stanley Cup. Another Jaeger bomb for all. Out to smoke
8:50 Guru Steve arrives. All move inside to re-locate in the bar. More discussion of posting, twitter, other sites like twitter, and computers ensue.
9:15 E posts the Louis CK post. All must see it.
9:27 Steve, Dave, and DFV go outside to smoke and look at Louis CK video on DFV’s iPhone. E stays inside to guard drinks from the riff-raff that is starting to inhabit the bar.
9:41 DFV, Steve and Dave come back in and discuss cancer and other modern issues.
9:53 Scotty arrives. Pleasantries are exchanged. More discussion. Topics include family guy and the Simpsons, former conclubber Jamie, Sarah Palin and the Rockies (who won their 9th straight game by the way).
10:40 Guru Steve adds a picture of a handsome individual posting minutes on his computer. Talk turns to talk radio, the Broncos and Brandon Marshall, Knowshon Moreno and other Bronco topics.
Update:
11:35 The five engage in various discussion mixed in with bouts of smokes on the back porch. One of the main topics is the state of the Republican party. This discussion takes up a significant amount of time as Dave sticks by his assertion that the GOP cannot surrender its values to become Republican-light. Damien doesn’t really see politics that way and argues that there is always going to be coalitions that guide policy. In essence, there will always be Olympia Snowes but she is a useful idiot anyway because she still caucuses with Republicans.
11:55 Shots of some 100 proof schnaps that made our breath minty fresh.
Sometime between midnight and 1:35 Scott departs. Topics: Shots of Jaeger. Beer. Jobs. Rockies. Post more. Liberals on the site.
Depart at 1:35
Overall it was a great time to be had by all. Little business was accomplished other that E harping on Dave and DFV. Both eventually gave in and agreed. We still need a webmaster that can implement our ideas. In keeping with tradition I thought I would include a song that best incapsulates the evening. Think Heineken beer. Cheers!
David Goldman, the man formerly known as Spengler, illustrates that actions have consequences…
This is just grand. First the Obama administration pulls the rug out from under the insurance industry by playing politics with credit seniority in the Chrysler bankruptcy, adding to the uncertainty of valuing trillions of dollars of corporate and commercial real estate debt. It then offers a bailout to the investors.
It’s not just Chrysler, of course: it’s the fact of loan modification that skims money for the servicers and starves the subprime pools, it’s the threat of cramdown in mortgages, it’s an administration that is applying banana republic finance techniques. There is a reason that subprime home equity AAA’s are trading at 27 cents on the dollar — that’s what you would get if you have 100% defaults and a 27% recovery rate. It’s practically impossible for things to get that bad, so there must be another explanation. And there is: the threat of government programs pushing recovery into the distant future and diverting cash flows away from bondholders makes this asset class extremely uncertain.
I mentioned to Phooey in a comment a few days ago that line from 8mm “If you dance with the devil, the devil don’t change. The devil changes you.” What is worrisome to me is that Obama knows why these laws and customs where in place. The explanation is that he has bigger plans.
Willie: Some people are so blinded by the thirst for money, that it causes them to lose their values and do things they shouldn’t do.
ALF: Well, that explains Ghostbusters II.
And it also explains the current incarnation of “the rescue package” brought to us by the Obama administration. Paul Krugman sums it up today in the NY Times.
And the insistence on offering the same plan over and over again, with only cosmetic changes, is itself deeply disturbing. Does Treasury not realize that all these proposals amount to the same thing? Or does it realize that, but hope that the rest of us won’t notice? That is, are they stupid, or do they think we’re stupid?
I don’t know which possibility is worse.
All of these so called plans have one thing in common, socializing the losses while privatizing the gains. John Q. Taxpayer had his money siphoned away by corporations at the front end of this fiasco and is being asked to pony up again to keep the whole scheme afloat. Something really stinks here.
After being ridiculed by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs for trashing the Housing Rescue Bill last week on CNBC, Rick Santelli fired back during an appearance on Kudlow and Company. Viva capitalism!!
Remember 1997? If you have forgotten, here is a quick list of events from 1997-
Why am I reminiscing about 1997? Because the DOW Jones closed today at 7365, only 79 points above that November low of 1997. Over a decade of gains in the market have been obliterated (minus dividends). At this point, there seems to be no bottom in sight.
It’s not just that fact that the markets have dived to these decade old levels, but the rate at which it has happened. Paul Volcker today described the current situation as the “Mother of All Financial Crisis”.
I don’t remember any time, maybe even in the Great Depression, when things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world…
Jim Cramer illustrated the staggering losses of capital today on his Real Money blog.
The declines are so staggering that you find yourself thinking only one thing: How could we have ever trusted these pieces of paper with our nest eggs? Plus, the “terminal” value of some of these stocks, such as BAC, C, AIG, is catastrophic. They aren’t coming back
In the past, whenever everyone started to throw the baby out with the bathwater, it was time to cowboy up and start putting one’s money to work. This just feels different and it seems as if there are so many macroeconomic hurdles to clear before we see light at the end of the tunnel. The “stimulus” plan and “homeowner” plan are only patches that are delaying the inevitable market bottom. We need to find that bottom, and fast, or we just may find out that there isn’t one.
As always, the task of recording the all-important discussions of the Conclub triune falls on me. I suppose I am the James Madison of Conclub. For those unaware, Constitution Club officially meets on the 1st Friday in June and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
4:45 - Eric drives to DFV’s house. Knocks on doors and calls. No answers. E knocks louder and continues to call. No answer. Then, using some deductive reasoning, Eric goes into DFV’s unlocked car, pushes the garage door open, goes downstairs, bangs on the bathroom door, and wakes DFV up. In case you didn’t know, DFV can fall asleep at a moments notice. He is a bit of a narcoleptic. He must have fallen asleep on the can!! E affords DFV all of the dignity he possibly can but, really, who falls asleep on the can?
6:00 – Traffic sucks on the way up to Ft. Collins.
6:45 – Eric and Damien arrive at the Cork. At about the same time, Scott arrives. All exchange pleasantries. Scott has a Coors light, DFV has a Bud light, E has a 7 & 7. E’s brother also brings some Jaeger bombs and they toast to Thanksgiving. Conversation immediately goes to our jobs, families, and original Conclub founder Jamie. There is no band playing and no music blasting at all. The bar is quiet and dead. Only a few patrons scatter the joint.
7:15 - Dave arrives late as usual. Once again, pleasantries are exchanged and beers are ordered. Dave joins the Coors Light crowd and E orders up a Bud Light. Since the bar was extremely slow, E was able to just pour the beers himself. He then went downstairs to cook up a pizza and some wings (its good to be related to the owner). Only Scott and Eric eat. Dave usually arrives with some form of coin for the people but this time he must have forgot. It goes unnoticed by all but the secretary.
7:43 - While eating, conversation turns to the recent election. Scott tells stories of how he went to both a Sarah Palin appearance and a Barack Obama appearance. It turns out that the Palin rally was good but totally disorganized. The Obama rally was packed and ran fairly smoothly. All concluded that this is very indicative of the overall organization of the campaigns. Discussion moves to the Obama reactions and how it is important to support the P.O.T.U.S. Dave doubts the sincerity of the tears of many when Obama is elected, E and Scott beg to differ. (update by Dave, I was more disgusted by than doubting of said tears)
8:05 – More beer. Side discussion and smokes.
8:30 - More beer. Discussion turns to West wing and other assorted topics like China, college, Congressional idiots, smart people in political office, Lets get retarded music video, West wing again (isn’t there a statute of limitations?)
9:05 - Scott throws out the idea of a political reality show that traces a candidate through running for office to getting into office.
9:15 - Conversation takes a serious dive as E exposes DFV’s narcoleptic tendencies to the gathering (and now the world). DFV says that the problem with a reality show on politics is that people won’t let themselves and their seedier motivations and strategies be exposed.
9:35 - More beers and drinks. By now, DFV is drinking his 3rd scotch and water, E is on 7 & 7, and Scott and Dave continue to power Coors Light.
9:45 - DFV and Dave smoke, Scott and E play some hunting video game.
10:10 - the foursome look at some platforms for ideas for the new and improved site. They get diverted to some Youtube video. Among them is ‘show them to me.’
10:25 - Discussion turns to the site name. Most agree that THEconstitutionclub.com is fine. E doesn’t really like “The,” but it isn’t really a big deal. Quickly the discussion morphs into college drunken stories and adventures involving seizing flags.
11:20 - Scotty departs. The trio begins serious discussion about the blog look. The discussion quickly morphs into how sensitive Dave was to PG’s criticisms. DFV and E get all over Dave for chasing PG away.
11:55 - The remaining three cash out and leave early with their senses in tact and their dignity in place (unless you count DFV who slept his dignity away). For the most part, the social gathering accomplished little in the way of business but as always, it is always good to get together with the guys. The song of the night and the tone of the evening was told in this whimsical diddy. Enjoy!
As always, I must inform the public of the impending semi-annual Conclub Conclave. The Thanksgiving meetings always take place on the Wednesday night prior to Thanksgiving. We will be in Ft. Collins around 6:00 at the Cork.
If you can’t make it, don’t fret. The Grand Triune of Conclub will be in attendance and will certainly take care of the beverage consumption. On the docket will be a discussion of a domain name redirect and getting a web person that DFV knows who can remake our site. I need DFV (the head of the web functions committee) to call the wife of his friend prior to this meeting to give us specifics and costs.
Also, if there are other concerns to be addressed, your comments are always valuable.
And so it begins…
Bush signs economic bailout bill
Everyone happy? Nearly a trillion dollar in current and potential bad debts covered by the government in the last couple months. Paulstone cried panic, meltdow and mayhem. The Congress stampeded and the holdouts bought off to the tune of an additional $100 billion plus in earmarks and pork. So we are good, right? Maybe not…
$700 billion bailout? You ain’t seen nothin’
THE POLITICS OF BLACKNESS: Be careful what you wish for — it may just be the end game for capitalism
Credit markets to Washington: Bailout isn’t enough
Bailout Doesn’t Resolve Fears On Economy, Credit
Truth, lies and ticker tape (Spengler on the Bailout)
McCain: Bailout a ‘tourniquet’
Obama urges second stimulus after bailout passes
Relax, everything is gonna be just fine. Trust us.
There is an increasing backlash against the biggest government meddling in private enterprise, and its takeover of whole sectors of the economy, since FDR. (Though wait until Obama tries to ram his ‘universal health care’ down your throat). The ‘whisper’ campaign against socialist notions and bailing out Wall Street ”big men” is beginning to be heard. Idiocy and massive greed got “them” to this point. Why is it my responsibility to help them get “out of it”? Actions have consequences and chickens come home to roost.
At least a few GOP’ers had the unmitigated gall to at least question why the US taxpayer should be doubly screwed; first by the banks and mortgage companies charging outrageous interest rates on “adjustable” rate mortgages once the initial “tease” rate is expired and the “homeowner” is unable to finance, and then as a taxpayer paying for the pathetically poor decision making of banks and mortgage companies.
I have customers coming in who lost their homes when their interest rates jumped to 13% and even higher on very modest priced middle class homes. Most people can’t afford a jump from $1100 a month to $2500 a month and the casualty rate among the middle class due to the insatiable greed, fraud and get rich manipulations of large numbers of unscrupulous people is staggering. Those holding the billions in potentially bad mortgage debt should be forced to negotiate with homeowners instead of bailed out by those same people now wearing the label of US taxpayer. With the government stepping in we will only be back to business as usual instead of changing the way business has been practiced in the past.
I’m not taking a hundred percent stand one way or the other on this bailout (not that it matters) and I could still be persuaded to support it, but I am suspicious of it and am glad to see some voices of caution being raised about what is now happening in D.C. As far as I can see, this does very little for the little guy, and that concerns me greatly as one of the little guys who will be desperately attempting to refinance at the end of the month to avoid possibly becoming just another statistic in two short years. The key has got to be to stop the massive cycle of foreclosures and help keep people in their houses. Anything else seems to be just putting more “lipstick on the pig”.
Quotable: “‘Just because God created the world in seven days doesn’t mean we have to pass this bill in seven days,’ said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.”
Or at all.
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.
”I don’t see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,” Mr. Watt said.
From a NYT article entitled New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, dated 9/11/2003. Oh by the way the new agency was proposed by the Bush administration and opposed by the Democrats. Barney and Mel are some of the guys involved in ‘fixing’ things. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Technically, this was yesterday, but my TiVo just showed it to me now. From Rachel Maddow explaining the bailout in layman’s terms:
Money is Halloween candy. And those Wall Street bankers are, metaphorically speaking, our six-year-old child who went out and got more candy than we’d ever seen or imagined. Trick or treat. And with all that candy sitting there, we parents — the taxpayers — hired a babysitter to supervise our child. Only instead of hiring a grownup who wisely fears what happens when six-year-olds do what they like to do best — eat all the candy, all at once — we instead hired a seven-year-old babysitter: the federal government. So what happened? The six-year-old ate more candy than it should have, on the seven-year-old’s watch, and got sick… all over the carpet.
And as we’re paying and sending home the babysitter, we get her take on the disgusting, huge mess of a crisis we’re now in: our seven-year-old babysitter turn to us and says, “Well, the problem here is that now you’re out of candy. You’re gonna need more candy.”
UPDATE: I wrote this post last week. I considered not running it as some might not appreciate the criticism. Well no comments so far. LOL. This London Times writer stole my stuff! BUT HEY, we are always ahead of the curve here.
McCain’s attack on Wall Street “greed and corruption” and call for greater regulation in response to last week’s financial crisis has added to concerns about the tenor of his campaign. A Wall Street Journal editorial warned that he would “never beat Obama by running as an angry populist like Al Gore, circa 2000”.
John McCain is of course no conservative. He has a decent record on life and he had the best geopolitical approach among the Republican candidates. I chose him because of his stance on Iraq and the political courage that showed. I am not a rabid sufferer of nativism and was not troubled by his stance on immigration. He had quite a bit of baggage in other areas, but on balance he was worth the gamble I thought.
The brand of statism he has been promoting lately has my gorge rising. He willingness to promote some kind of amorphous ‘service’ money hole with no clear direction at the forum last week was pathetic. He at times seems to be willing to out ‘collectivist’ his socialist opponent. One could, if sufficiently Kool-aid enabled, chalk this up to giving a sympathetic face to his campaign. He is the ‘reform’ candidate. OK if you say so.
His new populist rhetoric is extremely troubling. His blaming the evil oil, banking, insurance, investment industries is a bit too rich. He proposes non-specific regulatory reforms on an over taxed and over regulated economy. Obama demonizing business and industry is usual collectivist’s stock-in-trade. When McCain scapegoats business, and the people that run them, he is participating in the same class warfare that the Democrats participate in. He is selling out.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.” —-C.S. Lewis
If the government gets into the business of regulating and controlling carbon emissions it will be an unparalleled concentration of power far exceeding the New Deal under Roosevelt. The government will be in complete control over what businesses and average citizens consume and produce. It is the gateway excuse to rule, regulate and control your daily life in a fashion that we have never tolerated before but are now expected to meekly accept as we attempt to bailout the bathtub with a teaspoon. Never have Americans been so willing to hand over the most fundamental financial, transportation and quality of life decisions to a central authority on such questionable grounds.
We have been brainwashed that climate change is mainly caused by human activity and that somehow carbon taxes, economic socialism, monitoring lawn mower emissions, criticizing cow flatulence and flailing away at the faceless evil that is “oil” will somehow make a difference on climate changes we are only barely beginning to understand, let alone significantly influence one way or another.
Rather disturbingly, presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama made the following statement while campaigning in Oregon.
“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.” “That’s not leadership,” Obama declared. “That’s not going to happen.”
Time-Warner: Vodka Ad Campaign Reconquers California for Mexico
Taking the Reconquista concept all the way to the end, Absolut Vodka launched an ad campaign that appears on billboards and at least one magazine that features a map of the western U.S. and Mexico with nearly the entire west coast appearing as a part of Mexico…
…In a day when immigration issues are incendiary between our two countries, Time Warner accepting ads that stirs Mexico’s sentiments to “take back” parts of the U.S. (as the term Reconquista means) as their own territory is quite extraordinary.
While “they” may be kidding many others are not.
As long as it doesn’t imperil the bowlegged mottled millipede or dig up some ancient Indian burial ground maybe we can actually take advantage of some of our own natural oil reserves. Will Al Gore and the Democrats allow even a barrel to be pumped? How carbon neutral will I have to become before I am allowed to fill up my pollution producing vehicle once this precious crude is refined? I need answers. If everybody would just let us access our own reserves and build a few refineries we wouldn’t be spending 3 dollars and a quarter a gallon for gasoline. There is a reason ‘common sense’ and the conservative ideology go hand in hand.
Bakken Oil Formation Holds Billions of Barrels in N.D.
The Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, according to a report Wednesday.
The Bakken Oil Formation, which covers North Dakota and portions of Montana and South Dakota, is believed to have 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
As E the Wise and I had previously revealed here on Conclub, Joe Nacchio’s trial was another example of a politicized prosecution and the bigotry of the masses. Now, the Court of Appeals has thrown out the conviction and ordered a new trial. If Nacchio is as stupid as he was at his last trial, he will again hire Herb Stern to defend him. Stern will again do a piss poor job, and Nacchio will again be convicted. If he’s smart, he’ll hire an expert criminal defense lawyer (rather than a corporate specialist like Stern).
“J.P. Morgan is paying less for Bear Stearns than the Yankees paid for A-Rod!”
Dylan Ratigan on CNBC’s Fast Money
This topic has been getting a lot of play on the local radio here in the last couple of months. Is anyone familiar with this? I checked out the site that was plugged on the radio spot
http://www.closetheenronloophole.com/
and as expected it is decidely one-sided. Unfortunately all of the results I got on a google search on the topic were very similarly opinionated. They accused oil speculators of everything short of torturing kittens to drive up oil prices and make themselves rich. Not to mention the invoking of that E word which conjures images of fat cats and massive corporate fraud.
I’m generally a free trade, free market type of guy but not vehemently so, therefore I hesitate to jump on the bandwagon however I also cringe every time I need to gas up lately. I am also naturally a bit of a cynic so when I see this much negative press on a topic I assume there has to be another side. Any of you ladies or gentlemen have more in depth insight on this topic?
As one wise man once told me there’s 3 sides to every story. In this case, that of the “loophole closers,” that of the speculators and finally the truth. Econ guys you have the floor.
Call John Cougar! It’s time for the 2008 Mortgage-Aid Concert. Maybe with Jeff’s help we can get some muscle behind this production and make it happen. Mortgage-Aid 2008 brought to you by the Constitution Club.
All joking aside (although the more I think about it the better the idea sounds), the worst is still yet to come in the current housing crisis, which is frightening considering we are already at Depression era comparisons in debt to value on mortgages. 10.3 percent of homeowners in the U.S. (8.8 million) are underwater right now, and millions more are facing that reality with each passing day. With nearly 2 million ARMs set to adjust during 2008, this loss of property value virtually assures that those folks who want to refinance will be unable to do so and others who need to sell their homes for different reasons may have to bring money to the table to complete the transaction or find themselves stuck with a home they cannot sell.
Back in September, I discussed the issues facing those with subprime mortgages and looked at a potential plan to help mortgage holders facing possible foreclosure. The problem has grown so large today that even those with prime mortgages may need alternate solutions in order to avoid foreclosure or be faced with the decision to just walk away from their homes. The Office of Thrift Supervision is working on a plan that sounds similar to the plan I analyzed in September.
Under the regulatory agency’s proposal, still in its early stages, these borrowers would refinance into government-insured loans that cover the current value of their homes. The refinancing would pay part of what’s owed to the original lender. For the remainder, the lender would get what the plan’s backers call a “negative equity certificate.” The lender could redeem the certificate if the home is eventually sold at a higher price.
Banks would get to keep foreclosed property off their books while holding federally guaranteed mortgages and owners could stay in their homes rather than walking away from their obligations. Though not perfect, an option like this along with various other programs may help to keep the economy from sliding into the depths of a recession unseen since the Great Depression.
It’s scary out there.
I received this in my e-mail today. Rather interesting. I guess the quest for a legacy, and funds and profits to be made by some off of that ‘legacy’, has begun. He’s got plenty of time to develop one. Bill Clinton is desperately trying to find one for himself after all these years, so at least he won’t be alone in that endeavor.
My cousin (one of my dad’s sisters sons) is the founder and CEO of Smart Genetics which is just making its debut. I thought you might find it interesting. They are doing some cutting edge work and have just launched Alzheimers Mirror. Our grandfather died of Alzheimers and that was one of the driving forces behind him getting into this field and starting this company. This is just one of the multitude of genetic tests that they have been researching for the last couple of years. Julian was out here for my brother’s wedding about a year and a half ago and rarely do you get to have a good conversation about genetic testing while sitting at the head table at a wedding reception.
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