As we reported, [F. Kenneth] Bailey made repeated donations to [Gov. Ed] Rendell's 2006 re-election campaign in the months before his law firm was given a no-bid, contingency-fee contract to sue Janssen Pharmaceuticals on the state's behalf. Mr. Rendell told the Philadelphia Inquirer -- whose reporters have roused from their slumbers -- that "there wasn't the slightest bit of pay-to-play here." But the Governor was obliged to acknowledge that Mr. Bailey had approached the state about suing Janssen. Normally, the state Attorney General would handle such legal matters, but the AG rebuffed Mr. Bailey. Mr. Rendell's office then decided to hire the law firm that was also his major campaign donor. Smile if you think the two were related.
The episode speaks volumes about Mr. Rendell's political ethics, but more important is what it reveals about the plaintiffs bar's latest "business" model. Mr. Bailey's Janssen suit is part of a national pay-to-sue operation, as he and his Bailey, Perrin & Bailey law firm have taken their pre-packaged lawsuit to many states. Janssen's complaint asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to dismiss Bailey Perrin from the suit notes that the firm has "taken on numerous engagements similar to this action, including representation in the states of Louisiana, South Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi and New Mexico."
It's some racket. The plaintiffs attorneys come up with novel legal theories under which to sue companies or entire industries. They then solicit state AGs (or cash-hungry Governors like Mr. Rendell) to retain them to bring cases on behalf of the government on a contingency-fee basis. Motley Rice and Lieff Cabraser are among the firms that have targeted drug companies as well as makers of cigarettes, paint and guns.
...The biggest losers here are the cause of justice and the principle of prosecutorial neutrality. When outside lawyers are hired to do the government's business, and then given a financial stake in the outcome, it creates irreconcilable conflicts of interest. The state delegates key decisions -- about whether and whom to sue, what legal theory to pursue, whether to settle and what remedy to propose -- to private lawyers motivated by profit rather than the public interest.
Meanwhile, the pay-to-sue nature of the transaction means that politicians have an incentive to promote frivolous litigation that makes it even harder for American business to prosper and create jobs. If Governors like Ed Rendell won't stop this legal-political collusion, state legislators should.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Stinking to high heaven
Quotes of the day
...people who frown in photos are five times more likely to get a divorce than people who smile.--Clara Moskowitz
TARP has become a little bit of a scarlet letter.--Jamie Dimon
But picture Isaac Newton scribbling down the laws of physics every day, and every night God comes in and erases the scribblings, changes the laws, and fiddles with the constants. That is what macro is like.--Arnold Kling
Days after North Korea launched, Mr. Obama announced he wants to reduce our nuclear arms inventory so as to "give us a greater moral authority to say to Iran, don't develop a nuclear weapon; to say to North Korea, don't proliferate nuclear weapons." Who would ever invoke "moral authority" with Somalia's pirates? So why North Korea or the others?--Daniel Henninger
Garnering affection
Mr Sarkozy is pouring cold water on President Obama's efforts to recast American leadership on the world stage, depicting them as unoriginal, unsubstantial and overrated. Behind leaks and briefings from the Elysée Palace lies Mr Sarkozy's irritation at the rock-star welcome that Europe gave Mr Obama on his Europan tour earlier this month.
The American President's call "to free the world of the menace of a nuclear nightmare" was hot air, Mr Sarkozy's diplomatic staff told him in a report. "It was rhetoric – not a speech on American security policy but an export model aimed at improving the image of the United States," they said. Most of Mr Obama's proposals had already been made by the Bush administration and Washington was dragging its feet on disarmament and treaties against nuclear proliferation, the leaked report said.
Personal pique and French politics are also behind the souring of Mr Sarkozy's self-promoted honeymoon with the United States. On the personal side, the French President is needled by the adulation for an unproven US leader whose stardom has eclipsed what he sees as his established record as a world troubleshooter. "The President is annoyed by what he sees as the naivety and the herd mentality of the media," said a journalist who is privy to Elysée thinking.
Mr Sarkozy has put out a version of the proceedings at the London G20 economic summit which casts him as hero, in the classic French role of intransigent defender of principle in the face of the American steamroller. This is to counter last week's reports of Mr Obama saving the day by persuading President Hu of China to accept Mr Sarkozy's demands for naming tax havens.
According to the leaks, Mr Sarkozy shamed Mr Obama into intervening: "You were elected to build a new world. Tax havens are the embodiment of the old world," he is quoted as saying. He also reprimanded Mr Obama for setting US goals for climate change that were inferior to Europe's, according to his staff.
Again, according to the Sarkozy version, at the Nato summit in Strasbourg, Mr Obama was meekly yielding to Turkey's refusal to endorse Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance's new Secretary-General. It took pressure from Mr Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel of Germany to stiffen him up and change his mind, say the French.
Is Obama Carter II, Clinton II, or Dubya II? A significant dosage of each, it seems.
UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds notes that affection is on the decline, too:
I thought the world was going to love us!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wesley Clark, like Benedict Arnold
Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
Kinda sorta like Nassim (see immediately below).
Cheap shot or not?
Suppose the only people in the world are Hannibal the millionaire, a slave trader, and 10,000 penniless orphan slaves. The slave trader has no direct use for his slaves, but likes money; Hannibal, on the other hand, is a ravenous cannibal. According to Robin, the "optimal outcome" is for Hannibal to get all 10,000 orphans and eat them.
Canada's healthcare looks green
Quotes of the day
But [North Korea's] existence is profound, confirming that an Orwellian state is possible.--Tim Kane
Like it or not, Goldman is a central part of the financial system, which means that it’s a central part of any bailout strategy. It can’t unilaterally say no to that, and I hope that it gets slapped down by Treasury as definitively as it was slapped down by the stock market yesterday.--Felix Salmon
First, we should close down as promptly as possible Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. There never was a reason for those two institutions, other than to avoid the congressional budget process. The benefit that people got from Fannie and Freddie came from the subsidy to the mortgage interest rate. Congress could have passed that subsidy over and over again. They avoided passing it by taking the program off budget.--Allan Metzer
And now, with his donor base shrinking, Dodd has to face the first tough Senate race of his career with the mortgage scandal, the AIG bonus scandal, the pardon for a felonious friend scandal, the Irish cottage scandal and, as an extra, added distraction, the charge he was AWOL as chairman of the banking committee while the economy was collapsing. It's not hard to see why Dodd is redesigning himself as an outraged fixer of the financial mess that evolved while he was running for president.--Dick Ahles
Of course, I find [Walt Disney] interesting because it’s a form of self-flattery: he managed to make legit both sappy nostalgia and starry whiz-bang futurism. He loved the small town and the moon base.--James Lileks
A righteous anger
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
I needed to put this somewhere
F.A. Hayek Interviewed By John O'Sullivan from FEE on Vimeo.
UPDATE: Arnold Kling says:
Very rewarding to listen. For example, a bit over an hour into it, he makes the point that unions that force up wages in one industry will divert capital into that industry, taking it away from workers in other industries. Earlier, his thoughts on the three sources of social norms--instinct, tradition, and intellectual theory--are well articulated, also.
Bob Hall and Susan Woodward suggest a free lunch
David Beckworth exposes why even when brilliant and esteemed folks wish a free lunch, none exists.
Via Greg Mankiw and Tyler Cowen.
Quotes of the day
Only in a highly politicized bureaucracy could the Constitution be viewed as a subversive manifesto.--William Jacobson
In countries where a woman has a virtually unfettered right to choose abortion, the result is that women overwhelmingly choose to abort female fetuses.--William Jacobson
And indeed, the political battle over health care is infused with the belief that you shouldn't have to think about cost--that it is immoral to deny anyone a treatment that might help them.--Megan McArdle
By [Douglas McIntyre's] numbers, total pirate loot for this year will probably be somewhere around $200 million. Of course they have various expenses, such as boats, GPS equipment and most importantly protection -- some would liken that to a mafia payoff, though in developed economies we'd call it "taxation."--Joe Weisenthal
And, indeed, what is the State anyway but organized banditry? What is taxation but theft on a gigantic, unchecked, scale? What is war but mass murder on a scale impossible by private police forces? What is conscription but mass enslavement? Can anyone envision a private police force getting away with a tiny fraction of what States get away with, and do habitually, year after year, century after century?--Murray Rothbard
Many union members, whose dues are being used to fund this odd alliance [with environmental groups], might be shocked to find out they were paying to hasten the demise of the industries employing them.--Jennifer Rubin
At least with regard to sex, MIT economics majors are not putting the freak in Freakonomics.--Ian Ayers
Monday, April 13, 2009
Don Surber imagines Barack Obama back in elementary school
His math skills seem to be slightly deficient. The other day, in preparation for the standardized test, I asked the students the usual “Train Leaving Chicago” question. He said the answer was to bail out both railroads.
When I told him this was far from the correct answer, he said that this was a problem left over from George, who was a student who transferred to Texas during the semester break when your grandson transferred in.
He refused to say another word until I brought the lectern to his desk. After that he seemed happy. I decided that he does better with the lectern, so that explains why it now sits next to his desk.
He calls it LOTUS.
Must be some sort of family joke that I don’t get.
...
The coach said he is a fine addition to the basketball team. The only drawback is he cannot seem to understand that when he makes a basket, it counts the same as a basket made by anyone else.
I am not so sure that he is quite as aware as he should be about American culture. The other day, our sixth-grade team traveled to another school to play its rival. He quickly became popular with the members of the other team by apologizing for our team’s past victories.
Then he did not seem to understand why they elbowed him and pushed him around during the game anyway.
We absorbed our worst drubbing in years.
For some reason, he has become a Pittsburgh Pirates fan this spring.
Except for these small things, your grandson is adjusting well and he is an excellent student who makes friends quite easily.
P.S. The cafeteria lady would like to have a word with you. It seems your grandson insists on buying everyone’s lunch and the bill is getting quite high. I’m sure you are good for the money.
Congress plus the Ivy League
Oh, that's why some do that
Chicago streetwalkers earn $25 to $30 an hour, four times what they'd get in other jobs available to them. Venkatesh has also tried to assess the value of having a pimp versus self-managing, which he calls "a classic business school, industrial organization question." Prostitutes who work with pimps, it turns out, appear to earn more and get arrested less frequently. The Chicago prostitution study, which continues, will be written up in the sequel to Freakonomics, to be published in a year or so.
I commend President Obama's use of force on the Somali pirates
UPDATE: Stephen Green says:
The missing context is this — the might and will of the United States were held hostage, until one brave civilian captain took matters into his own hands. Philips risked his life escaping, and opened the door for the Navy SEALs — who ought to be in the business of kicking doors down.
This particular event ended well, due largely to the actions of Captain Phillips. Next time we might not be so lucky.
UPDATE: Will Collier would probably agree with my proposal to unseat Congress as much as possible.
UPDATE: Tom Baldwin says that Obama has laid some Carteresque doubts to rest. Hope.
UPDATE: Jules Crittenden begs to differ:
The success yesterday was due to a military that has been equipped, configured and trained for this kind of action since the Reagan years, and has seen a great deal of it in combat against America’s enemies in the last decade. The Carter analogy kicks in not so much with the happy, violent ending to a single incident, but with the follow-through. What are you going to do about, Obama?
UPDATE: So does William Jacobson:
The problem is not in this case, which ended successfully, but in the next hostage taking situation. If one is going to follow a negotiation approach, the trust of the hostage takers in the negotiation process is key. If hostage takers believe negotiation is a ruse, then the hostage is in more danger. Words cannot be just words in a negotiation.
So negotiating as a ruse is the worst of all alternatives. It does not have the deterrent effect of the Israeli approach, or the hostage-safety effect of the negotiation approach.
UPDATE: Richard Fernandez looks ahead:
In the coming months, some merchant crew may try to imitate the actions of the Maersk Alabama and suffer terribly at the hands of pirates who may be determined to inflict an object lesson on the shipowners. With their humiliation at the hands of the USN, the pirates have temporarily lost their most powerful weapon: terror. They will be eager to regain it.
Jeremy Seigel responds to his stock valuation critics
- Liabilities do indeed cross the divisions of a single firm, and that is why the New Products Division of AIG tanked the many other profitable divisions of the insurance giant. But these losses do not cancel the earnings of profitable firms.
- Back in 2002 the aggregate earnings of the S&P 500 Index also plummeted when a few firms, such as AOL and JDS Uniphase, took huge writedowns on some of their Internet investments. Reported P/E ratios soared into the 60s in the second quarter of 2002, yet rather than being overvalued, the market was just approaching its bear market low.
Quotes of the day
The idea that we can continue to raise revenue, while shifting more of the burden onto fewer and fewer people is a pipe dream. Think of the grand scale of the government's ambitions, from fighting wars to providing universal healthcare. Are we really to believe that all this can be done via a tax increase on the top 2%? That's obviously hogwash. What's more is that top 2% is getting sharply poorer fast, given the collapse of the financial industry.--Joe Weisenthal
My preferred story, in contrast, is just that once in a century, we get a once-in-a-century economic disaster. These disasters are hard for anyone to foresee, no matter how smart he is. The trick is just to keep the rarity of such disasters in perspective, stay calm, and let things get back to normal. Sigh.--Bryan Caplan
But I’m not sure proponents of [short sales] restrictions even care about these arguments. They don’t like short-selling because it tells the truth.--Larry Ribstein
For the bottom 40% [of income tax filers], the redistribution deal is even better. In 2001, these 43 million Americans, who earn less than $30,500, made 13.5% of the nation's income but paid no income tax. Instead, they received checks from their taxpaying neighbors worth $16.3 billion. By 2005, those checks totaled $33.3 billion.--Ari Fleischer
But in an increasingly specialized society, those skills are increasingly specific,. The more skills you have, the fewer jobs there are that match them.--Megan McArdle
Remember the good old days, when economists used to write papers about how firms -- most of all public utilities -- would under-report profits, to minimize regulation and control? These days we have firms over-reporting profits to minimize regulation and control.--Tyler Cowen
The people who just want to know things because they need to make important decisions, in contrast, usually say little about their love of truth; they are too busy trying to figure stuff out. These are the "truth lovers" I most respect in the sense of trusting their efforts to be directly targeted to actually uncovering truth. Sellers, hobbyists, and do-gooders are instead more likely to pretend to seek truth while actually seeking cash or respect.--Robin Hanson
... why does Brad DeLong make up fake statistics? Is he afraid the truth won't support his orthodoxy? He claims twice -- not once, but twice! -- that it is unfair to say the New Deal was ineffective, because "unemployment did fall from 23% in 1932 to 11% in 1939." Yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that unemployment as 17% in 1939.--Don Luskin
I believe that computers have taken over the world. I believe that they have in many ways ruined our children. I believe that kids used to love to go out and play. I believe that social graces are gone because manners are gone because all people do is sit around and text. I think it’s obnoxious.--Steve NicksThe wheel is also a bad idea.--Don Surber
The challenge now for [Tom] Brady is to do what Tiger Woods has done – keep his personal life private while remaining the premier player in his sport.--Jim Donaldson
Dancing with the Stars is like life itself, only stupider-looking. So you sympathize with the contestants. Because they suck in the same way we suck. Because they succeed in the same way we succeed. They work hard. And they either get it or they don't. As Lawrence Taylor goes, so may I go. So may all of us go. In dancing, as in life.--Ross McCammon
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Discuss: "Quality Care" is neither about quality nor care
The Obama administration is working with Congress to mandate that all Medicare payments be tied to "quality metrics." But an analysis of this drive for better health care reveals a fundamental flaw in how quality is defined and metrics applied. In too many cases, the quality measures have been hastily adopted, only to be proven wrong and even potentially dangerous to patients.
...
How did we get here? Initially, the quality improvement initiatives focused on patient safety and public-health measures. The hospital was seen as a large factory where systems needed to be standardized to prevent avoidable errors. A shocking degree of sloppiness existed with respect to hand washing, for example, and this largely has been remedied with implementation of standardized protocols. Similarly, the risk of infection when inserting an intravenous catheter has fallen sharply since doctors and nurses now abide by guidelines. Buoyed by these successes, governmental and private insurance regulators now have overreached. They've turned clinical guidelines for complex diseases into iron-clad rules, to deleterious effect.
Maybe Congress should not even convene in times of national emergency
Barney Frank who earlier started war on mark-to-market and republicans, has added a new front to his offensive: Moody's rating agency. The reason: Frank's displeasure with the possibility that Moody's will downgrade America's municipalities as this "action will raise interest rates on cities and towns making it more expensive to borrow funds for infrastructure developments." As a result Frank threatens to hold a hearing in May to explore "the unfair treatment of full faith and credit general obligation bonds."
Orwellian outcomes: universal healthcare
BCWUW4: be careful what you wish for.After first squeezing the private insurance policies by undercutting their offerings with a subsidized federal government health insurance, the government then could undercut the private insurance further by denying the insurers tax deductibility unless they complied with federal health service regulations. As only the wealthiest could afford to buy private health insurance if the cost were not deductible, private health insurance companies would be compelled to follow federal benefits and cost regulations.
At that point, almost all Americans would get their health care pursuant to federally regulated systems. Then the president would be able to begin to deliver on his twin pledges to reduce the cost of entitlements and make health care overall contribute to lower deficits.
The federal regulators could do merely what the British regulators do currently:
--Constantly reduce the compensation of doctors and all other skilled health care providers. (As domestically trained American doctors became scarcer, more not-as-well-trained foreign doctors would be needed.)
--Limit the availability of medical technology. (In Canada, patients have to wait for months for MRIs, so those who can come to America for immediate diagnostic services.)
--Ration available treatment to fit the federal budget requirements. The universal digitalized health data could be used to justify non-treatment on a cost-benefit basis. For example, hip replacement for older people may be denied because they are not likely to live long enough to justify the expense.
At that point, Americans would (too late) understand more fully what happens when health care is a right rather than a service purchased by a sturdy, free people in an unfettered free market.
Bob Dylan on President Obama
He’s got an interesting background. He’s like a fictional character, but he’s real. First off, his mother was a Kansas girl. Never lived in Kansas though, but with deep roots. You know, like Kansas bloody Kansas. John Brown the insurrectionist. Jesse James and Quantrill. Bushwhackers, Guerillas. Wizard of Oz Kansas. I think Barack has Jefferson Davis back there in his ancestry someplace. And then his father. An African intellectual. Bantu, Masai, Griot type heritage - cattle raiders, lion killers. I mean it’s just so incongruous that these two people would meet and fall in love. You kind of get past that though. And then you’re into his story. Like an odyssey except in reverse.
...
He’ll be the best president he can be. Most of those guys come into office with the best of intentions and leave as beaten men. Johnson would be a good example of that … Nixon, Clinton in a way, Truman, all the rest of them going back. You know, it’s like they all fly too close to the sun and get burned.
It's a free ride
When French foes of capitalism want to mount an effective protest, they phone Xavier Renou.As one of France's top protest consultants, Mr. Renou teaches activists how to chain themselves to trees, damage genetically modified crops and withstand police interrogations. These days, his phone is ringing off the hook, as the tumult in the global financial system has led to a boom in protests.
Despite a surge in demand for his services, Mr. Renou, 35 years old, is struggling to capitalize on the travails of capitalism. He charges students as much as €50 ($67) a head in his weekend protest course, writes books and has produced board games with left-wing themes.
Every Rose has its thorns
Steve Derion, film critic extraordinaire:
Kate Winslet's character, Rose, was one of the vilest and most disgusting characters ever to grace the silver screen. From beginning to end, she displayed nothing but character flaws and a lack of concern for everyone else around her. As the movie starts, she is a rich brat who is depressed that she has to marry an incredibly rich and handsome man because he treats her badly. Perhaps she should have taken into account his personality rather than his bank account when she accepted his proposal.
Rather than take responsibility for her own actions, stand up to her mother, and tell him to his face that she is not in love with him, she instead decides to take the easy way out and kill herself. Now, the whole world would be better had she just jumped off the back of that damn boat. Instead, our boy Leonardo DiCaprio talks her down from the ledge, and she sees him and thinks, "Ooh, cute poor boy." So then she decides to slum it for the weekend and hook up with the cute poor kid. Then, to prove her total lack of morals, she decides that she will ask Jack to "draw her" -- naked, of course.
So, while engaged to someone else (because she never had the decency to call it off), she decides to get naked for a guy she has known for all of about 24 hours. Immediately afterward it's time to consummate the hours-old relationship in the back of a car that is not theirs. Wow, that's a real "moral" Victorian woman for you! Of course, that is not enough. The ship hits the iceberg (we didn't see that one coming). By the way, she was on deck when that happened. I wonder if our lookout was too busy snooping on her and Jack to notice the iceberg. Maybe it's actually her fault the ship sinks in the first place.
Anyway, our hero Jack puts Rose on a lifeboat. Of course, being safe is not enough, so she jumps back onto the sinking ship -- a prime example of great decision-making. After it goes down, Jack is safe on a door of some sort, but he has to give up his spot to save Rose. Now Rose is on the door, and Jack is stuck in the freezing waters. So in a sense she kills Jack in a slow, frigid, painful way -- sort of like the experience I felt while watching this movie. She holds on to Jack's shivering hand, telling him, "I'll never let go, Jack, I'll never let go." Of course, after a few minutes in Arctic waters, Jack's hand is no longer shivering. Winslet, in tears, continues, "I'll never let go, Jack, I'll never let go." Around then, the lifeboat arrives, and Winslet immediately lets go, "Hey, I'm over here!" Jack sinks to the bottom of the ocean, and Ms. Winslet grabs a spot on the lifeboat. Real nice, Kate, real nice: Whatever happened to never letting go?
We then hear the rest of Winslet's life. Her fiancé loses his mind and ends up killing himself (you're two for two, Kate). However, she finds a nice man, marries him, and lives a great life. Eventually, he dies (I wonder what she did to make that happen), and we see Winslet's Rose again at age -- I don't know, let's say 126 -- with her granddaughter or whoever is on the ship trying to find the Titanic's wreckage. At the end of the film, Rose walks to the back of the ship and takes the priceless diamond necklace that she could give to her grandchildren, which would set her family up for generations, but instead she throws the freaking necklace into the ocean! Queue overplayed, overhyped and over-sung Celine Dion song (I mean, seriously, by the end she is practically screaming the lyrics -- like Celine, we get it, you have a great voice, stop assaulting us with it already).
Back to throwing the fancy necklace: She might as well have thrown three generations of her family over the side of the ship. Could she possibly be more selfish? Well, yes, she could, because then, apparently Rose dies, and we see her in heaven. For some reason, heaven is the Titanic (not exactly what I picture paradise to be). She opens up a stateroom door, and there is Leonardo's Jack waiting for her in bed. Not her actual husband, mind you, but Jack. So she is even cheating on her husband in heaven.
I rest my case. The vilest, most horrifying character in cinematic history. An Academy Award for playing the she-devil would be one of the greatest travesties in mankind's history since ... the actual Titanic.
Photo link here.
Cockroaches: the latest special-interest group advocating global warming mythology
Quotes of the day
Every man serves a useful purpose. A miser, for example, makes a wonderful ancestor.--Laurence Peter
From a libertarian perspective, your generosity is reflected in what you do with your own money, not in what you do with other people's money. If I give a lot of money to charity, then I am generous. If you give a smaller fraction of your money to charity, then you are less generous. But if you want to tax me in order to give my money to charity, that does not make you generous.--Arnold Kling
We are rapidly approaching an ethos of No Company Left Behind or Too Small to Fail. Neither of those concepts works particularly well in K-12 education, where social promotion and other factors have only led to grade inflation and overblown sense of self--Nick Gillespie
Think of government as a charity. From a libertarian perspective, it is a charity run by the Mafia, which will break your knuckles if you don't make your donations. It is also a badly mismanaged charity. It funnels lots of money into questionable causes, and even when the causes are good the programs that it funds tend to be very wasteful.--Arnold Kling
How much longer will Tim Geithner be able to keep ignoring this fatal flaw in his bailout plan? Or will he just decide to ban economic studies by current Harvard and Princeton professors? (Presumably, former Harvard and Princeton professors--Summers and Bernanke--will still enjoy the First Amendment.)--John Carney
Bloomberg News just announced that the SEC is talking about bringing back the Uptick Rule, which prevents people from shortselling while the stock is on its way down. I don't understand why the Commission doesn't focus on something more effective, like installing lavish statues of Mammon on trading floors so that traders can better propitiate him. --Megan McArdle
So, if I've got this clear, Mugabe's family has the Ark if the Covenant, which doesn't melt people, but does grant the power to direct cholera against political opponents?--Amanda Taub
It kind of sucks some of the gravitas out of Obama’s moral preening on Guantanamo Bay when he hires a guy who made a stoner comedy about the place.--Abe Greenwald
Obama prefers to think of himself as Lincoln but, striving for Carterdom, is lucky if he looks like Clinton on a good day.--Jules Crittenden
... this is classic Obama rhetoric: Say you're open-minded, try not to impugn your critics' motives, and then move forward with the standard demagogic approach.--Bryan Caplan
State prosecutors are supposed to be motivated by a sense of public responsibility for the interests of justice. Law firms have other motivations, and no-bid contingency-fee deals encourage lawyers with a financial stake in a case to try meritless claims or ask for exorbitant awards. That serves neither taxpayers nor justice, though in this case it sure did help [Governor Ed] Rendell's re-election campaign.--WSJ Editorial Board
In a deposition for his $10 million suit against American Apparel, Woody Allen described the clothing company's ads as "sleazy," "adolescent" and "infantile." Yes, the same Woody Allen who sleazily started an affair with his quasi-stepdaughter, who was an adolescent at the time.--Cityfile
Three things go up in recessions: church attendance, bar attendance, and movie attendance. Why those three things? They represent the three things people are looking for: meaning, connection, and relief.--Rick Warren
Larry Reed spanks Adam Nossiter
Imagine a thief who spends an afternoon pick pocketing a sizable crowd. In a few hours, he’s nabbed thousands of dollars in cash and a bag full of credit cards. He then spends a small fortune at some jewelry stores and makes off with the loot as a suspicious citizen who recognizes him cries “Stop!”
If Nossiter were covering this little episode, the story in the Times the next day would read as follows: “A Good Samaritan yesterday gave several gem shops a big boost when he bought more diamonds than the stores usually sell in a month. The benefits of the spending binge were confirmed by no less an authority than the store owners themselves, who promise to hire more employees if the generous customer comes back regularly. An obviously disgruntled passerby attempted to interfere in the matter by shouting as the customer left, but he was told by an angry store manager to leave well enough alone. Meanwhile, economists at the nearby state university are hailing the increase in local GDP.”
Make these substitutions and you have the gist of the actual Nossiter story in the April 5 Times: The Good Samaritan is the federal government, the jewelry store is Louisiana and the passerby who tried to rain on their parade is Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Oh, I almost forgot: the people in the crowd whose pockets got picked are representative of the taxpayers of America but it doesn’t matter because they’re not mentioned in Nossiter’s story anyway.
(Via Don Boudreaux)
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Bill Belichick, Personnel Arbitrageur
If quarterback alone could deliver a championship, the Miami Dolphins would have six Lombardi Trophies to show for the Dan Marino era. Instead, they have none.
That's what makes Belichick the best in the business right now. Tom Brady takes up only one roster spot. It's what Belichick has done with those other 52 roster spots that have forged the Patriots into the NFL's team of the decade
On Feb. 5, Belichick placed a franchise tag on his backup quarterback Matt Cassel. That ensured the Patriots could keep him on their roster in 2009 at a cost of $14.6 million. Brady was already on the books for $8 million in 2009.
The two quarterbacks combined for almost one-fifth of New England's $125 million salary cap money for 2009. That squeezed the Patriots under the cap. They no longer had any wiggle room.
But Belichick had no intention of keeping Cassel. He understood the value of a starting NFL quarterback and slapped the franchise tag on him to protect the team's investment of time and money in Cassel.
On Feb. 28, Belichick created wiggle room, sending Cassel and aging linebacker Mike Vrabel to the Kansas City Chiefs for a second-round draft pick. That created almost $18 million in salary-cap space and gave Belichick the financial freedom to add 16 veteran players since March 21.
Belichick invested that $18 million in re-signing eight of his own players plus eight free agents. Five of those free agents were NFL starters in 2008: running back Fred Taylor, cornerbacks Leigh Bodden and Shawn Springs, wide receiver Joey Galloway and tight end Chris Baker. Belichick also signed deep snapper Nathan Hodel away from the NFC champion Arizona Cardinals.
The Patriots could go to training camp tomorrow with the deepest, most talented roster in the NFL. Belichick would have no glaring holes in his depth chart.
But, wait, it gets better for the Patriots. New England has an NFL runner-up 11 selections in the 2009 draft, including a league-high six premium picks in the first three rounds. The Patriots have the 23rd overall pick of the draft, three second-rounders and two thirds.
On April 1, the Patriots had the best roster in the NFL. By May 1, it will be even better. Champions are crowned in the NFL every February. But championship teams are built in March and April. Right now, no one does it better than Belichick.
Is healthcare getting more difficult to provide?
Fifty years ago, with the FDA pressing ever harder on efficacy, the most important thing in a pharma chief was probably knowing what went into making an effective drug. Twenty years ago, you needed to know how to market it to get the most money out of a very narrow patent window. These days, you need to be able to negotiate a fearsome political and regulatory environment.
I'm thinking about skyrocketing malpractice insurance premiums for some doctors, and believe that sick people may not be being optimally served.
Why am I not surprised?
My next vacation is also taking place in a neurotic state.
Which is more embarrassing: Quayle's Latin in Latin America
They strike me as very close. Maybe I should work on a Similarities Between Dan Quayle and Barack Obama list.
Greg Newton, who foresaw the credit derivatives crisis back in September 2005
UPDATE: His publication also drew skepticism to Bernie Madoff. Back in 2001.
Quotes of the day
Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don’t give it any value.--Dean Steacy, Canadian Human Rights Commissioner
Funny how those who are always lecturing on “human rights” are so quick to ignore Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s as if they’re really more concerned with power than with rights.--Glenn Reynolds
George Orwell once observed, brilliantly, that every joke is a tiny revolution. So are the best political blogs – that’s why so many powerful people want to silence them.--Stabroek News Editorial Board
Bill Gates' April Fools joke is not very funny.--Donald Sensing
As the popular saying goes, they told me if I voted for McCain … there would be no end to the hated Bush Constitution-stomping policies, and they were right! Obama admin moves to thwart a lawsuit on NSA eavesdropping.--Jules Crittenden
Top 1% Earned 19% of Income, Paid 28% of All Taxes. And got 1% of the vote.--Glenn Reynolds
It turns out that financial regulation is not like a math problem, which can be solved once and stays solved. Instead, financial regulation is like a chess game, in which moves and counter-moves proceed continually, eventually changing the board in ways that players have not anticipated.--Arnold Kling
... does Barney Frank really think that the next crisis -- and you know we'll see plenty more -- is going to look like the last? Does Frank really anticipate that if things got back to normal, banks would immediately start ignoring homeowner credit risk.--Joe Weisenthal
Maybe I’m overly cynical, but trusting a politician’s conscience seems a bit like trusting a prostitute’s sense of propriety.--Tony Woodlief
The Boston Globe finds itself having to live up to the ideals it espoused for others, facing the threat that it mocked and denied. The stalwart defender of unions must now wrest back concessions from its own unions.--J.G. Thayer
It turns out St. Paul might have been a precursor of Norman Vincent Peale and Dr. Ruth. (Well, he did say it was better to marry than to burn.)--K.J. Webb
Sure, my boxed trifecta might not come in, but I think it's worth six bucks to threaten a horse with a trip to the glue factory. (I'm not sure what emoticon to add here to indicate that I actually love horses and that was Soviet-level black humor. Maybe a smiley Dostoevsky?)--Jesse Livermore
Last night I convinced Caleb that instead of saving up money to buy an expensive, super-complicated Star Wars Death Star Lego kit, he should spend that money on a motorbike. I’m fairly certain that as a result I’ve rescued him from a lifetime of involuntary virginity.--Tony Woodlief
Conor Clarke posts an update of the tax picture in the US
--The 2006 average effective federal tax rate is 20.7%. In 1979 (the year the data set starts) it was 22.2%. The 2006 average rate for the bottom quintile of households is 4.3%; for the highest quintile it's 25.8%. In 1979 it was 8% and 27.5%, respectively.
--The 2006 average effective rate for the top 1% of households is 31.2%. It fell slightly since 2005, when it was 31.6%. In 1979 it was 37%.
--The bottom quintile of households pay 0.8% of all federal tax liabilities. The top quintile pays 69.35.
--The average pretax income for the bottom quintile is $17,200. For the top quintile it's $248,400. After-tax, it's $16,500 and $184,400.
Monday, April 06, 2009
The Obama Administration HATES children?
Voucher recipients were tested last spring. The scores were analyzed in the late summer and early fall, and in November preliminary results were presented to a team of advisers who work with the Education Department to produce the annual evaluation. Since Education officials are intimately involved in this process, they had to know what was in this evaluation even as Democrats passed (and Mr. Obama signed) language that ends the program after next year.
Opponents of school choice for poor children have long claimed they'd support vouchers if there was evidence that they work. While running for President last year, Mr. Obama told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that if he saw more proof that they were successful, he would "not allow my predisposition to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn . . . You do what works for the kids." Except, apparently, when what works is opposed by unions.
Mr. Duncan's office spurned our repeated calls and emails asking what and when he and his aides knew about these results. We do know the Administration prohibited anyone involved with the evaluation from discussing it publicly. You'd think we were talking about nuclear secrets, not about a taxpayer-funded pilot program. A reasonable conclusion is that Mr. Duncan's department didn't want proof of voucher success to interfere with Senator Dick Durbin's campaign to kill vouchers at the behest of the teachers unions.
The decision to let 1,700 poor kids get tossed from private schools is a moral disgrace. It also exposes the ugly politics that lies beneath union and liberal efforts across the country to undermine mayoral control, charter schools, vouchers or any reform that threatens their monopoly over public education dollars and jobs. The Sheldon Silver-Dick Durbin Democrats aren't worried that school choice doesn't work. They're worried that it does, and if Messrs. Obama and Duncan want to succeed as reformers they need to say so consistently.
Oh, and it looks like the better outcomes were had at a quarter of the cost.
Another whistleblower
Back in 2002, a new employee of Harvard University’s endowment manager named Iris Mack wrote a letter to the school’s president, Lawrence Summers, that would ultimately get her fired.In the letter, dated May 12 of that year, Mack told Summers that she was “deeply troubled and surprised” by things she had seen in her new job as a quantitative analyst at Harvard Management Co.
She would go on to say, in later e-mails and conversations, that she felt the endowment was taking on too much risk in derivatives investments, and that she suspected some of her colleagues were engaging in insider trading, according to a separate letter written by her lawyer that summarized the correspondence.
On July 2 Mack was fired. But six years later, the kinds of investments she allegedly warned about did blow up on Harvard. The endowment plunged 22 percent last summer, in part due to the collapse of the credit markets. As a result, the school is cutting costs and under criticism that it took on too much risk in its investment portfolio.
Baracky Road: a new ice cream flavor
is a blend of half Vanilla, half Chocolate, and surrounded by Nuts and Flakes.
The Vanilla portion of the mix is not openly advertised and usually denied as an ingredient. The Nuts and Flakes are all very bitter and hard to swallow. The cost is $100.00 per scoop.
When purchased it will be presented to you in a large beautiful cone, but then the Ice Cream is taken away and given to the person in line behind you.
Thus you are left with:
- an empty wallet,
- no change,
- an empty cone,
- with no hope of getting any ice cream
from my favorite broker.
Geithner's Big Scam
Look, the government's actions all revolve around one overriding strategy: Moving more and more of our private debt to the public ledger. That's it! There's nothing more to it. The bet is that the public balance sheet can withstand a lot more leverage before it busts, and that a delevered private sector can return to health.
Thus all these bailout efforts are meant to be gamed. If there were no gaming going on, the schemes wouldn't be living up to their full potential, because that would represent debt staying in the private sector.
Of course this strategy has drawbacks. For one thing, it's totally dishonest, because it's not being sold this way. It also is rewarding failure, maintaining a status quo that's proven to be unsustainable. And what's more, if Washington is wrong, and the public balance sheet can't withstand more leverage, the effects could be catastrophic.
But really, for the bailouts to work, the private sector -- and, yes that includes homeowners who are figuring out ways to scam the mortgage mods -- needs to "game" the system as much as possible.
After the big transfer is done, we just need to default on our Social Security payments and cut military spending and voila, problem solved.
I'm still thinking it's a big bug. Photo link here.
Why might free prediction markets be a matter of life or death?
An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L'Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing dozens of people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic among the population.
Any other questions?
Quotes of the day
My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.--President Obama, to bank CEOs
Say, can we get a list of Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac bonus recipients? I mean, since Congress’s need for the AIG names was so urgent.--Glenn Reynolds
Well, [Bill Maher's] lips say he’s still for free speech, except dissent has been downgraded from patriotic to dangerous.--Don Surber
[President Obama] has now gotten himself so entangled in the car business that he is personally guaranteeing your muffler. (Upon reflection, a job best left to the congenitally unmuffled Joe Biden.)--Charles Krauthammer
You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.--Benjamin Netanyahu
I'd much rather have a sports world littered with [Curt] Schillings than Vijay Singhs.--Bill Simmons
Reducing carbon emissions organically
Plants and trees are growing faster because of rising carbon dioxide levels.
Uh oh, all this expansion of flora could lead us to global cooling!
NY Times likes unions, except in their own operation of course
The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut The Boston Globe unless the newspaper's unions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said yesterday.But just a year ago, the NYT was celebrating the growth of union membership:
In the private sector, unions’ share of workers inched ahead from 7.4 percent to 7.46 percent. While the rebound is tiny, and might yet prove to be a statistical mirage, it is the first recorded increase in organized labor’s ranks since the 1970s, when almost one in four workers belonged to a union.
...
Still, the uptick offers hope that the renewed emphasis on organizing workers by some of the nation’s largest unions — like the service employees’ union, the Teamsters and others that split off from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. to form the Change to Win coalition — might start paying dividends despite the difficult odds.
A bill that would have made it easier for unions to organize workers died in the Senate last June. Congress should take up this issue again to stop companies from using threats and other aggressive tactics to keep organized labor out, and to help win workers their rightful share of the economic pie.
Why does this remind me of so many appointees to the government that failed to pay their taxes?
Friday, April 03, 2009
Quote of the day
Our current bailout regime…I would say this situation is an affront to the market and an affront to democracy. ... The calculation [of potential bankruptcy] does not involve the safety of the asset as it has been managed, but the probability of a bailout.--William Poole
If government prevents ineffective producers from failing, the red light on the “economic traffic signal” stops working. Production continues and resources flow when they should halt, destroying wealth instead of creating it. --Peter Leeson
The 2005 Transportation Bill tried to be green
Even writers at The Nation get it, sometimes.
Congress should only assemble and legislate in national emergencies.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
No one goes hungry in America
The bad: that comes out to 1 in 10 Americans.
The Big Whooshing Sound (of jobs leaving the US) didn't happen with NAFTA
Unless the concerns that import to us also are under the same system. Or unless income and corporate taxes are abolished as an offset to the carbon tax.
Quotes of the day
THE Obama administration’s $500 billion or more proposal to deal with America’s ailing banks has been described by some in the financial markets as a win-win-win proposal. Actually, it is a win-win-lose proposal: the banks win, investors win — and taxpayers lose.--Joseph Stiglitz
Government would not have to pay for it because I think that only people who want to help out should pay. It should be their decision. It won't be like taxes because taxes you have to pay.--9 year old Karen Henderson
The left-liberals at Think Progress are outraged by Fox News Bill O'Reilly's use of ambush journalism. Where was their outrage when 60 Minutes was perfecting the technique?--Steve Bainbridge
Correlation, tiresomely, once again refuses to imply causation
I’ve seen a lot shakier plots used to justify some sweeping conclusions, and if those were justified, well, then I’m forced to conclude that Mexican lemons have improved highway safety a great deal.
Mark-to-market forebearance will increase market uncertainty
The Financial Accounting Standards Board, pressured by U.S. lawmakers and financial companies, voted to relax fair-value rules that Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. say don’t work when markets are inactive.The changes approved today to fair-value, also known as mark-to-market, allow companies to use “significant” judgment in valuing assets to reduce writedowns on certain investments, including mortgage-backed securities. Accounting analysts say the measure, which can be applied to first-quarter results, may boost banks’ net income by 20 percent or more.
So much for transparency. I'd prefer capital ratio forbearance, which is much more transparent.
For the brilliant allegory, check out John Carney:
You have two cows.
You paid $100 for each cow. You write that down.
Lightning strikes one of your cows, an unlikely event that should only happen once every 10,000 years.
Lightning strikes the other cow.
You notice the cows are on fire.
Your paper still says $100.
Fortunately, mark to market has been suspended so you don't have to pay attention to the fire.
Your cows are dead from fire.
Your paper still says $100.
Fortunately, mark to market has been suspended so you don't have to pay attention to the dead cows.
You notice that you aren't getting as much milk as expected, so you adjust the model and mark the cows down to $98. You are confident, however, that the dislocated stream of milk revenue will quickly revert to expectations.
You need to borrow some money so you ask investors for a loan against the cows. The investors tell you the cows are dead, and you already owe them $200 dollars you borrowed to buy them in the first place. You show them the paper that says the cows are worth $98 each.
They light your paper on fire.
You ask the government to buy the dead cows at $98 each.
Tim Geithner tells you about the public-private investment partnership, which will encourage BlackRock and Pimco to buy the dead cows. Pimco puts in $5 and the Treasury puts in $5, and the FDIC lends $60 to a new entity called Pimcows, LLC. They buy the cow for $70. Tim whispers that he expects you'll buy a new cow with the $70.
You have two dead cows, $70 and $200 in debt to your investors. You have no plans to buy new cows.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Heading toward a transnational legal process???
President Obama's nominee for State Department legal adviser could be a future Supreme Court pick. He believes U.S. law should be based on foreign precedent, and even Shariah law could find a home here.
We have commented many times on the opinion of a number of U.S. Supreme Court justices that American jurists should include foreign law and precedent in their decisions. In several prominent cases, this has already happened.
In a speech in South Africa, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the March 2005 Roper v. Simmons decision, in which a 5-4 majority ruled against executing murderers who were 17 or younger, "perhaps the fullest expressions to date on the propriety and utility of looking to the 'opinions of (human)kind.' "
More recently, Justice Stephen Breyer said: "We see all the time . . . how the world really . . . is growing together. The challenge (will be) whether our Constitution . . . fits into the governing documents of other nations." Whether our Constitution fits?
Agreeing with Ginsburg and Breyer is one Harold Koh, a former dean of Yale Law School who's been nominated by President Obama to be the State Department's legal adviser. He's an advocate of what he calls "transnational legal process" and argues that the distinction between U.S. and international law should vanish.
Koh believes laws of places like Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka should carry equal weight with the laws of Virginia and South Dakota, and that it's "appropriate for the Supreme Court to construe our Constitution in the light of foreign and international law" in its decisions....
Koh says the Supreme Court is now divided between "nationalist" judges who believe our Constitution is the only one that counts and "transnationalists" who believe "we the people" should be changed to "we are the world."
The next appointment will tip the balance one way or the other, Koh says. He just might be Obama's first pick to fill the next vacancy. Neil Lewis of the New York Times last year said Koh was widely regarded as a leading contender.
This is the man who'll be giving Secretary of State Hillary Clinton legal advice. This is the man who could quite possibly be the next Supreme Court justice. This is Harold Koh.
Just something to keep an eye on!
Graph of the day
The World Bank acted to suppress data collection on bank regulation
because it didn’t like the findings that were emerging (not that an obscure topic like financial regulation is that important).
Wait, what part of Propping Up Dictatorial Regimes falls short of that institution's aspirations?
He's not that short, can't stand his hometown, and thinks A-Rod is a big "dork
Except God, of course
My ontological and teleological wires are crossed.
A round up of today's madness
Jeff Ely or Sandeep Baliga announces the President's latest appointments.
Jonah Goldberg reports on the gift exchange between President and Queen.
Greg Mankiw begins charging for his blog.
Housing Wire says that the President has asked the Treasury Secretary to step aside.
Doug Poretz says Obama and Reagan are polar opposites
Here are my predicted similarities between Barack Obama and George W. Bush from this past Inauguration Day, about half which have already been fulfilled. I suppose, via transitivity, that Bush and Reagan were very different executives, as much as the former tried to link himself to the latter.But most significant is the mirror image of how they appealed to the middle class. Reagan painted a bright picture for the middle class with the idea that if the government adopted policies that favored the wealthy - primarily capitalists and investors - their increased prosperity would cause prosperity to “trickle down” to all others. Thus, the keystones of Reagan’s economic agenda as he assumed the White House were:
- Reduce the growth of government spending,
- Reduce income and capital gains marginal tax rates,
- Reduce government regulation of the economy,
- Control the money supply to reduce inflation.
Among the most significant results of this approach was that the marginal tax rates under Reagan fell from 70 percent to 28 percent. Capitalism, wealth, investing and finance were glorified. The American Dream of success as measured by wealth and materialism was restored.
Look into the political mirror and you’ll see Obama reflected in reverse. Reagan told the middle they could dream of living like the wealthy; Obama told the middle that Reagan’s dream was fake. In his nomination acceptance speech, Obama laid out the case this way:
“Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit cards, bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that’s beyond your reach.”
Who and what were to blame, according to Obama?
“For over two decades — for over two decades, [McCain has] subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy: Give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else…. Well, it’s time for them to own their failure. It’s time for us to change America.“[Emphasis added]
And here’s how Obama’s mirror image of Reagan is being executed:
- Increase the growth of government spending,
- Increase taxes on those who benefitted most under Reagan policies; give tax breaks for the middle/working class,
- Increase government regulation of the economy and engage directly in corporate strategic decisions such as who should be the CEO of General Motors,
- Pump massive cash into the economy, even if it means increasing the risk of inflation for the sake of solving short-term needs.
A.W. Tozer looks back at the pessimism of the previous century
Immediately following the first World War, a wave of pessimism swept over the literate world.What the cause was I shall not go into here but, whatever it was, the intellectual mood of the ‘20s and ‘30s was thoroughly despondent. Materialism, pessimism, cynicism and skepticism were the four horsemen of those gloomy decades and they rode forth conquering and to conquer.
The scientists were materialistic, the philosophers skeptical, the novelists and biographers cynical and almost everyone pessimistic. Even the interpreters of prophecy were apprehensive, for they saw in the capture of Jerusalem by the British and the rise of the Roman Empire under Mussolini evidence of the nearness of the tribulation days, the coming of Antichrist and the collapse of civilization. About the only religionists on the Protestant side who managed to retain a little optimism were the liberals (“modernists” they were called in those days), and they were cheerful for a wrong reason.
I like Paul
No, not Ron Paul, Paul McCartney, or my favorite broker. Paul Ryan:
America is not the greatest nation on earth by chance. We earned this greatness by rewarding individual achievement, by advancing and protecting natural rights, and by embracing freedom. We intend to continue this uniquely American tradition.
Responsibility is so scarce on Wall Street and Main Street. It seems even more scarce in Washington, DC.
Quotes of the day
Einstein's E=MC2 is an extraordinary concept. So radical: matter and energy are two phases of the same sort of general stuff. There's only one other idea that radical: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.--Kurt Vonnegut
President Obama rightly says "sacrifices" must be made if GM is to emerge as a viable company. But there's one sacrifice he won't make: his re-election chances, by leaving the fate of the UAW truly up to a bankruptcy judge.--Holman Jenkins
According to the government, GM's Rick Wagoner was forced to resign because of poor performance. That’s embarrassing. You run an organization that loses billions of dollars and then get fired by a guy who heads up an organization that loses trillions of dollars.--Jay Leno
That this story [about Obama administration shaping GM's board] has attracted so little notice as another sign of how numb we have become.--Tyler Cowen
Every bad thing you can think a union can do, the United Auto Workers did.--Kevin Hassett
If Bristol Palin’s actions reflect badly on her mom, why don’t Ashley Biden’s actions reflect badly on her dad?--Simon Scowl
So let's recap - Krugman was wrong about the previous strategy having been "always bonds", wrong about the switch to equities being executed at the market peak, and wrong about possible losses amounting to "hundreds of billions" of dollars, we presume. He also misspelled "Guaranty". But he did find an opportunity to explain how stupid conservatives are. Mission Accomplished!--Tom Maguire
... [Hanna] Rosin's [breastfeeding] article is also usefully read as a study in propaganda and social psychology.--Alex Tabarrok
Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral courage which it contained.--John Stuart Mill
Small-town California is one of the country's great incubators of seething resentment, which simultaneously explains both the state's wackadoodle politics and its hotly competitive sports environment.--Tommy Craggs
[Dustin Pedroia's] whole life people have been reacting to him, initially, in a certain manner, and his whole life he's been channeling that and turning it around and laughing as he steps right over them.--Theo Epstein
Raising eyebrows on the Obama-Geithner plan
The investment community was already suspicious last week when Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled his plan, announcing that Treasury would select four or five companies as "fund managers" to purchase toxic securities. Given that the whole idea is to create a liquid market for these assets, we'd have thought Treasury would encourage as many players as possible.Let me get this straight: only the folks who were caught swimming naked when the tide went out can swim in the nice new pool?
The investment community was already suspicious last week when Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled his plan, announcing that Treasury would select four or five companies as "fund managers" to purchase toxic securities. Given that the whole idea is to create a liquid market for these assets, we'd have thought Treasury would encourage as many players as possible.
But the bigger shock was when Treasury released its application to become a fund manager, a main rule of which is that only firms that already have a minimum of $10 billion in toxic securities under management can apply. Few hedge funds, private equity players or sovereign wealth funds come near this number. The hurdle would bar many who specialize in the very distressed assets that the Obama Administration is trying to offload from banks.
Another nominee, another tax "error"
Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7,000 in back taxes after finding "unintentional errors"—the latest tax troubles for an Obama administration nominee.
...
Several Obama administration nominees have run into tax troubles, notably the president's first nominee for HHS secretary, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. He withdrew from consideration while apologizing for failing to pay $140,000 in taxes and interest.
UPDATE: There's some weirdness around her mortgage, too.
As bad as things are in America
and yes, they are bad, at least we can be trusted with Second Amendment rights. Not so much Europe:
Thousands of G-20 protesters jammed downtown London on Wednesday and some tried to storm the Bank of England, pelting police with eggs and fruit and rocking the barricades designed to control them.So many of the educated folks here in the Northeast think it's enlightened to become more like Europe. Don't count me among my neighbors.Demonstrators shouted "Abolish Money!" and clogged streets in the financial district known as "The City" even as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference elsewhere in the British capital.
Remember Bernie Madoff being slowed down by a TV camera? He'd be dead if he had been found walking a major throughfare across the Atlantic.
Be careful what you wish for.
Photo link here.