A Court Case to Watch on HAMP

A federal court in California has ruled that a borrower is an intended 3^rd party beneficiary of the HAMP program, and so has standing to sue the bank for acting in bad faith:

This is getting interesting. A judge in U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, has issued an order that may just answer a few prayers of many homeowners. Here’s what happened…

A San Diego homeowner, by the name of Ademar Marques, was applying for a loan modification, and, although it might be hard for many readers to believe, his servicer, Wells Fargo, dba, America’s Servicing Company, wasn’t being very nice about it, or even cooperating at all. It seems that Wells Fargo wanted to just skip all of those messy and time-consuming formalities required when considering someone for a loan modification, and just jump straight into foreclosure.

Mr. Marques filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo’s America’s Servicing Company because he read about the Home Affordable Modification Program (“HAMP”) and the program’s guidelines said that his servicer was “REQUIRED” to screen him for a hardship, and consider him for a loan modification. He also alleged that he qualified for the loan modification program based on all of the published guidelines, and that his servicer, a participating servicer in HAMP never said that his loan could not be modified, they just refused to modify it, and instituted foreclosure proceedings.

Well, I never! The gall of some servicers. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Actually, I have. But not more than 30-40 times a day for the last two years.

The court ruled that as a participant in HAMP, the bank was obligated to review Ademar Marques case, and in not doing so, they breached their HAMP contract, and so do not have the right to foreclose.

Here is the money quote:

Are you digging this? Best I can make out, if you’re the intended third party beneficiary to a federal contract you can sue for breach of contract. So, if it says in the contract that the servicer “MUST” do something, and that servicer doesn’t do it… you the borrower may be able to sue the servicer for breaching that contract.

If Wells appeals, and if I were them, I wouldn't, because settling in this one case loses them a mortgage, and if the court of appeals rules against them, it becomes case law for a large swath of California, but bankers are not know for cutting their losses.

If there is an appeal, and Mr. Marques prevails, then it is certain that Wells Fargo will appeal to the Supreme Court, and I would bet 5 to 1 odds that if it gets that high, then the Obama administration will argue for the malefactor banks, because that's how they roll.

Spıinal Tap Drummer Syndrome Claims ELO Cellistge 62

Mike Edwards of ELO died on September 3 when a 700 pound hay bale that came down a slope and crushed his van.

My first thought was that it sounded like the demise of a drummer for Spinal Tap.^*

I've never been a big fan of the band, and obviously, Mr. Edwards has been out of the limelight for 35 years, since he left the ELO, and my condolences go to his friends and family.

That being said, what is it with rock and rollers and bizarre deaths?

On a note closer to home, obviously none of us can be certain when death might strike, whether it's a heart attack, or a 50 stone hay bale.

It's something to think about this (Jewish) New Year.

^*Spinal tap drummers have

• Died in a bizarre gardening accident, that the authorities said was "best left unsolved".
• Choked on vomit of unknown origin, other than his own, because "[y]ou can't really dust for vomit."
• Spontaneously combusted.
• Creme Brulee commitments forced him to retire, but went on backing tambourine for tour in 1982.
• Claimed he "couldn't take this 4/4 sh%$"; according to an MTV interview with Spinal Tap in November 1991, he disappeared along with the equipment during their Japanese tour. He is either dead or playing jazz.
• Allegedly sold his dialysis machine for drugs; presumed dead.
• Eaten by his pet python Cleopatra.
• Exploded onstage.

Deep Thought

Abraham Lincoln said that, "I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it," but this also nails what religion should be:



H/t IMContrary at the Shortskoolbus BBS.

I Was Wondering When Someone Would Do This

I had been wondering when someone would combine the fuel economy advantages of a hybrid with the fuel economy benefits of a diesel.

Well it's Pugeout, whose 3008 Hybrid4 stakes out this ground.

In typical French fashion, their hybrid system is kind of offbeat, the 163 hp turbo-diesel engine drives the front wheels, with a 37 hp electric motor driving the rear wheels, with the road serving to keep the two drives in sync.

I'm not sure how it shapes up efficiency wise, it would appear that regenerative braking applies only to the rear wheels, but it does allow for the car to function in 4 wheel drive mode.

Sunse? Space Goatse*?

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There is a reason why the comments at io9 are so rude.

Space Goatse^†

The Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) has published what is the most detailed photo of a The clearest photo of a sunspot we've seen thus far.

But this is not what I, or many of the folks who commented about the picture.

It was about 50-50 between people who thought that it looked like the eye of Sauron, and people who thought that it resembled a certain unspeakable Internet meme.

Me, I never saw the Lord of the Rings movies, so you can guess where my mind went.

In any case, if you want to review the comments on the thread, and you understand the context,^* then you may find significant amusement regarding what is otherwise a straightforward science story.

H/t hedgehog on by invitation only Stellar Parthenon BBS for finding this little "gem".

^*If you don't know what Goatse is, for the sake of all that is holy, do not Google it!
^†Thank SupaChupacabra at io9 for this bit of wit.

If This Were Any Cuter, It Would Be Banned in Boston

So now we know that the big cats like catnip too:



H/t Cogitamus.

Pass the Popcorn

Lisa Murkowski's people, though not Senator Murkowski herself, are making noises about her trying to run for reelection on the Libertarian ticket:

Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has received significant support since narrowly losing to Joe Miller in the August GOP primary, a spokesman said Sunday.

Murkowski has yet to endorse her Republican rival, leading to widespread speculation that she is evaluating options for a possible re-entry into the race. She has two options if she wants to re-enter: to be invited to run under the banner of the Alaska Libertarian Party or to mount a write-in campaign.

“She has received a huge outpouring of support from Alaskans, both individuals and groups,” Murkowski spokesman Steve Wackowski wrote Sunday in an e-mail to the Daily News-Miner. He cited support from Alaska Native groups and the fishing and energy industries.

I don't think that she is going to run, and if she does, it is not clear who she would draw more votes from, though my money is on pulling more from Miller than from Democrat Scott McAdams.

Additionally, the Libertarian Party has already been cool to the idea of putting her on the ticket.

I don't think that she will run, but that this will freeze Miller's campaign in place, and not do so for McAdams, because Miller's campaign is very different with Murkowski in the race, and Mcadams' isn't.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf Speaks

Now that he is back in the country, he has written a New York Times OP/ED.

It is very thoughtful and conciliatory, and I recommend reading it.

Were I were in such a position, what I would write would involve the term "bigot", and likely the phrase, "inbred c%$#suckers," which is why I am not a member of the clergy.

What Michael Moore Said

He riffs on Rahm Emanuel's "F%$# the UAW" comment, which was reported by former Car Czar, and corporate criminal Steve Rattner.

Damn good, if somewhat profane, writing.

I will be so f^%$ing glad when that f^%$ingchicken sh$# pissant coward Rahm is gone from public service.

He's Expecting to be Indicted

Mayor Richard M. "Richie" Daley has decided not to run for reelection as Mayor of Chicago.

Basically, given his history, my guess is that he knows that a corruption indictment is coming, and he wants to clear the deck in preparation.

There are whispers that Rahm Emanuel might take a shot at running for mayor, but I don't think so.

Rahm has failed upward his entire political career, NAFTA, trying to kill the 50 state strategy, running pro-war candidates who lost, etc.

You can make money in Washington, and on Wall Street (Rahm worked at Wasserstein Perella and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac)) based on connections, but if you are the Mayor of Chicago, you have to make things work.

Just ask former Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic.

Rahm might have the chops for the party politics, it is what he excels at, but at making worthwhile things happen, he is simply incompetent, and if he were to be mayor, he would be a one term mayor, and he would be unelectable thereafter, at least in Illinois.

But I've gotten off topic. My thesis is that Daley is resigning because US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is getting to close for comfort.

CrowdQuery: Greatest Mistake of the Crisis ? | The Big Picture

I'm with The Bloodhound Gang, on Banks,
Burn Motherf%$#er, Burn! (NSFW)

Barry Ritholtz asks his readers what was the biggest mistake made by regulators during the financial crisis, he thinks that it was the Bear bailout, because it led banks to think that they were invincible, but he asks, "Was Lehman the biggest error? Fannie/Freddie Nationalization? Something else in entirely?"

I'll go with something else entirely.

We should have let the festering pile of arrogance, ignorance, greed, and evil that was circling the bowl go under, and replace it with a taxpayer run lending facility for the rest of the economy.

We would have spend a lot less money than we have, there would have been more lending to the real economy, and the corrupt elites that got us into this mess would have been unseated, which, as Simon Johnson, former IMF chief economist, is what is really necessary in these cases, that these politically connected elites be broken.

Sergey Aleynikov Gets One Count Dismissed

He is accused of stealing Goldman Sachs' proprietary high frequency trading software, but one of the three counts against him, for unauthorized computer access, has been dismissed.

I've always maintained that HFT is actually illegal front-running, or at least it was illegal before Treasury Secretary Robert "Why am I not in jail?" Rubin got his hands on the regulatory regime, and as such, I have always wondered if there was a cover-up of some kind, seeing as how the prosecutors have admitted that this code could be used to manipulate the markets.

A twist in the case that I was unaware of was that Sergey is not the only one the Feds are going after on this, as, "Two months after Aleynikov's indictment, prosecutors charged former Societe Generale trader Samarth Agrawal with stealing computer code used in high-frequency proprietary trading in the French bank's New York office."

I am beginning to think that there is an official policy of allowing "systemically important" banks to skim profits from the markets in order to bolster balance sheets that are far shakier than has been revealed, but they want to keep this technology out of the hands of the small fry, because it would make the flash crash look like a weenie roast if too many people got their hands on this technology.

Background here

How to Link to People When You Do Not Want to Raise their Google™ Page Rank

Frequently people who I consider to be bad actors say things that I want to note.

In a blog, of course, you are supposed to link to them, that is what the World Wide Web is supposed to be about.

On the other hand, I do not want to drive traffic to their site.

One way of handling it, as I do with Associated Press stories, is to find alternate links. (here Google News is your friend)

Well, our good friends at Tech Crunch have provided an alternate, and somewhat less severe way to handle this, the nofollow tag, which tells Google not to follow the tag, so you won't boost their google page ranking.

Here is an example from the Wiki:

<a href="http://www.example.com/" rel="nofollow">discount drugs</a>

The tag was created by Google, but Yahoo, Ask.com, and Bing also follow this convention.

I'm not sure under which circumstances I would employ this tag, as opposed to finding an alternate link, except, perhaps, when there is no alternate link.

A Must Read on Obama and the 3rd Way

Daniel De Groot at Open Left pulls a comment by sTivo and it may be the clearest explanation of both Barack and 3^rd way politicians yet given:

When Barack Obama made his famous remarks about Ronald Reagan being transformational, it was misinterpreted as being political, an attempt to reach out to the other side. It actually was, as some feared, philosophical. It really did mean, sincerely, that except around the edges, he thought that Reaganism-Thatcherism was irreversible. Just as Bill Clinton does, just as Tony Blair does.

The Third-Wayers are serious about this. Seriously deluded, perhaps, but dead serious. There was never an attempt to triangulate the "independent center", those who still believed in Reaganism but were distressed by the partisan cultural meanness. That was sincere. Those who were played were the Democratic base. They would have to be satisfied with corporate-style knockoffs of social-democratic ideas (health care being the most obvious example). Labor reformers would have to be mollified with "we don't have 60 votes". And symbolic gestures devoid of content like inviting Pete Seeger to the White House.

(emphasis mine)

Occam's razor seems to mitigate toward this explanation.

Go read the rest.

H/t Atrios.

A Very Good Speech on Republican Promises

Before GE Bought His Soul, Lock, Stock, and Barrel

Yes, this is Ronald Reagan criticizing excessive profits, and the Republican Jihad against the organized labor, and he blames those profits on the inflation of 1946-48.

Why the Hell is the US Government Supporting the Karzai Government?

The largest bank in Afghanistan, Da Kabul Bank, is in the process of imploding due in a miasma of corruption and self dealing, as ordinary depositors rush to pull out their money from the institution following a number of stories revealing their corruption:

The Karzai government is corrupt and rotten to the core. Not a single US soldier should die to prop it up. The lie that we are fighting “al-Qaeda” in Afghanistan needs to be exposed. The US and NATO are fighting four or five groups of Pashtun insurgents, some of them until fairly recently US allies. The goal of the fighting is to keep the Karzai government from falling to the guerrillas and to train up an army and police force that could go on defending Kabul. The Afghanistan National Army from all accounts has poor morale. No wonder. What Afghan soldier or policeman would die for a ponzi scheme?

But Juan Cole's outrage at this was premature, because it is actually worse than he first reported, because after the government seized control of the bank, as the Washington Post hed states, "Officials freeze assets of Kabul Bank shareholders, excepting Karzai's brother."

Why we supported his continued corruption, and his election theft, I'll never know, but enough is enough.

Get out now, because the alternative, replacing him (see Diệm, Jean Baptiste Ngô Đình) just won't work.

Obama Calls for Weak Tea, and Cedes Ground to the Right Wing

So now, instead of trying for something that works to reduce unemployment, Obama is calling for a modest public works program, $50 Billion over 6 years, significantly less than what we are flushing down the toilet on the unnecessary F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.^*

What's more, once again, he throws a bargaining chip to the Republicans, who have shown their unwillingness to negotiate in good faith, by also proposing that the R&D tax credit be extended and made permanent.

Once again, when trying to put forward even the most modest proposal, he kneecaps himself by taking what could have been used as a lever to derive support, and handing it to his enemies so that they can use it as a cudgel against him.

Week tea, constructed to make it even weaker, once again.

^*This is not meant to be a commentary on the capabilities of the F-35, simply a statement that these capabilities are simply not necessary in current of foreseeable future conflicts, and the same goes for the F-22, so please don't make this a Raptor/Lightning II pissing contest.

So Now You Can Patent Recipes

It appears that a French company has patented Plumpy'nut, a fortified peanut butter as a treatment for severe malnutrition:

Should a revolutionary humanitarian food product be protected by commercial patent, when lifting restrictions might save millions of starving children?

That is the moral conundrum at the heart of a bitter transatlantic legal dispute.

On one side are the French inventors of Plumpy'nut, a peanut paste which in the last five years has transformed treatment of acute malnutrition in Africa.

Nutriset, the Normandy-based company, says the patent is needed to safeguard production of Plumpy'nut in the developing world, and to stop the market being swamped by cheap US surpluses.

And on the other side are two American not-for-profit organisations that have filed a suit at a Washington DC federal court to have the patent overturned.

They say they are being stopped by Nutriset from manufacturing similar - and cheaper - peanut-based food products, despite the proven demand from aid agencies.

"By their actions, Nutriset are preventing malnourished children from getting what they need to survive. It is as simple as that," said Mike Mellace, of the San Diego-based Mama Cares Foundation.

I will spare you the picture of the severely malnourished child in the article, but it appears to me that this patent is not only morally indefensible, but also a very real expansion of IP law to an area where it had not previously applied, recipes, which are rather famously not covered by copyright (see here), and the patent appears to be rather broad, covering pretty much every nut based food with milk in it, which would include the Nutella from which Plumpy'nut was originally derived.

The problem here is that the other potential players in this market (EVIL term, that) are all small not for profits who would be driven to extinction with a loss in a patent court.

One solution here is to make patents like civil rights law, and allow people to file suit before infringing, for the same reason that they do with civil rights suits: because the chilling effect occurs even if no one breaks the law.

Non-Combat Role My Ass!

Our troops are still conducting combat operations in Iraq:

US troops have been called in to help Iraqi forces battle insurgents who attacked an army base in Baghdad, killing 12 people, officials say.

It marks the first such use of US troops since the end of US combat operations five days ago.

US forces remaining in Iraq can now only participate in operations at the request of Iraqi authorities.

A US military spokesman said US forces had provided fired as Iraqis located two of the assailants inside the base.

When I said that the phony withdrawal from Iraq was a lie, I was right.

81% of the American Public Think that the Economy Sucks

So says a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey.

This is unsurprising, and it may explain why efforts like Clinton's, Blair/Brown's, and Obama's to dismantle the New Deal/Social Democrat structure, because they believe, even more than Republicans, that "Reagan changed everything," are driving people back into the arms of an increasingly delusional Republican Party, because a bad something always wins over a better nothing.

This is a foreseeable consequence of the "3^rd Way."

I Want to Vacation in Iceland

I company called ECA Program is in talks to purchase 15 Su-27 Flankers from Belarus in order to set up a private air-to-air combat academy at Keflavik airport in Iceland.

The primary customer is dissimilar air combat training for NATO forces, but I would really like to get a ride on one of these aircraft, and my guess is that they will make this available to private individuals as well.

Of course, now I just need a few million dollars.

I would also note that there are some differences of opinion amongst the various players in the Icelandic government about the merit of this proposal.

Israeli MoD Approves JSF Buy

Israel's Ministry of Defense has approved a purchase of 20 F-35 fighters, though the report of a price of "only" $96 million a copy, is clearly a blivit,^* as evidenced by this report of that 20 JSFs will cost about $2.75 billion, which gives a price of $137.5 million each, which is closer, but probably still less than, the cost of the aircraft.

In any case, while the MoD has approved, there is significant resistance from the full cabinet, with Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz expressing significant concerns about Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s decision.

It's clear that both Lockheed Martin and the DoD were desperate to get this sale, which explains why Israel Aerospace Industries got a contract to build 800 wingsets for the stealthy fighter, which comes close to Israel being paid to take the plane.

They want a stamp of approval from a country that is not already a partner in the F-35 consortium, and Israel gives them more market credibility than almost any other non NATO nation.

^*10 pounds of sh%$ in a 5 pound bag.

I Am Not Sure if This Flies, or if It's Just So Ugly That it Repels the Ground

You have to credit the Russian aircraft designers, this eleptical fuselage transport aircraft, dubbed 'EkoJet', appears to be an interesting way of looking at how to get a large number of people on and off an aircraft.

But man, it is one fugly bird.

The designers claim that the aircraft can carry as many passengers as the Il-86 (around 350 in an all coach configuration), but that it would weigh 80 tons less, or about 40% less than the IL-86's 217t MTOW, which I simply don't find credible.

The problems with the Il-86 were always its propulsion, not its structure, and a 40% weight savings seems to violate the laws of physics.

Your Friday of Muppets

This is so wrong:

The Completely Honest Job Interview

I'm so going to do this one day:

It's Bank Failure Friday!!!!

No bank failures this week, for the 3^rd time this year, and the 2^nd time in 2 weeks.

Something is going on, but I am not sure exactly what.

In any case here are the Full FDIC list and the Full NCUA list

Here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):

Kremlin Elizabeth Warren Watching

One of the big questions out there is who Barack Obama will appoint to appoint to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The leading candidate has always been Elizabeth Warren, who literally wrote the book on predatory finance in the age of the mega-banks, but the mega-banks, along with Tim Geithner, just don't like her, because, she might actually, you know, protect consumers.

That being said, the democratic wing of the Democratic Party has rallied behind her to an astonishing degree, and so it has increasingly appeared that Obama will nominate her, if only to allow the nomination to be filibustered, as they did in the case of his nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen.

Given just how demoralized the party base is, politics demands it.

Nothing has been announced yet though, so the press is engaging in a process similar to Kremlinology, and we have another data point: Ms. Warren has pulled out of the contract law class that she was teaching at Harvard.

I still expect that if Obama nominates Warren, he won't fight for her, but it is beginning to look like he will nominate her.

Feds Sue Sheriff Joe Arpaio

They have had a civil rights investigation of his department since (at least) 2009, and he has refused to turn over documents, so the DoJ has filed suit against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

Seeing as how it's pretty clear that the Sheriff's office is guilty, Arpaio has campaigned on harassing people on the basis of their ethnicity, one hopes that they get the documents, and an injunction, before Sheriff Joe goes and abuses his power to go Jim Crow on Hispanic voters this year.

Economics Update

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There is more scary graph pr0n at Calculated Risk


And workforce participation is the lowest since 1984

The non-farm payroll numbers came out, and, though better than expected, they really suck, with NFP falling by 54,000 and unemployment rising slightly to 9.6%, though most of that was the demobilization of the US census, and private payrolls increased by a better than expected 67,000.

Once again, the Panglossian members of the financial 4^th estate cast this as unbelievably good news.

It isn't. It's no where near the 100-125 K new jobs needed every month just to absorb new entrants to the job market.

Things are still getting worse.

And we have more evidence that the stimulus package that has driven the economy is running out of steam with the Institute for Supply Management's Non-Manufacturing index, a measure of activity in the service industry, continues to decline.

It's still showing meager growth, but only barely, and it missed expectations.

I Don't Approve of 3 Strikes Laws Either, But……

I Wonder if the DA Would do This to a White Man

Timothy Barnett is a con man. He has been convicted twice of using fraud to steal from homeowners.


Well, he appears to be back at his game, to the tune of 23 counts, and the DA has decided to pursue him with the 3^rd strike law which would put him in prison for the rest of his life.

I think that 3^rd strike laws are generally bad ideas, and the one in California is worse, but this is the sort of guy who makes me want to throw the book at him:

Timothy Barnett spent nearly five years in state prison for a 1990s foreclosure rescue scam in which he conned homeowners out of tens of thousands of dollars. Now, prosecutors say, he has been at it again, targeting residents in the same South Los Angeles neighborhood he fleeced before.

But this time, the state is unleashing one of its more powerful weapons against him. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has charged Barnett under California's much-debated three-strikes law. Usually aimed at offenders with a history of violent crime, it is rarely used for white-collar offenses such as fraud.

Arrested in April, the 47-year-old Barnett is charged with 23 felonies — including theft from the elderly, identity theft and real estate fraud — for allegedly tricking five people into unknowingly granting him title to their homes. He has pleaded not guilty.

Some experts said the case would be one of the first times a person charged with a white-collar crime was prosecuted under the state's three-strikes law. If convicted, Barnett could face life in prison.

I do think if you have 3^rd strike laws, and I don't think that you should, then it should be applied to white collar criminals.

But I think that 3^rd strike laws are yet another case of what H.L. Menken, the Bard of Baltimore, meant when he said, "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

C=MI*

Seriously, It Sounds Like Tertiary Syphillis


And then when challenged by the press, she flees

I don't know what is going on with Arizona governor Jan Brewer, but I hope that she has a substance abuse problem, because if her opening statment at the debate and her interview post debate are any indication, if it's not that, she has a serious neurological problem.

Of course, I am an engineer, not a Doctor, Dammit^†, but her goes well beyond someone who, thanks to Barack Obama hiring Napolitano, was promoted well past her capabilities, she has a serious screw loose.

Props to here opponent Terry Goddard, who, when accused of being responsible for the boycott, or at least supporting it, responds that when the governor of the state is lying about beheadings, it makes her a part of the tourism downturn.

I still think that Brewer is going to win, particularly with Sheriff Arpaio continuing his attempt to intimidate and harass Hispanic voters in the Phoenix area, but what passes for a mainstream Republican these days just buggers the mind.

^*Conservatism = Mental Illness.

^†I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!

Economics Update

It's jobless Thursday, and initial claims fell slightly to a still awful 472,000, in the middle of the 450-485k range it has been been in, with one exception, for the past 6 months, while the less volatile 4-week moving average fell to 485,500 last week from 488,000, and continuing claims fell to 4.46 million, and the people on emergency UI fell as well.

It's a lot of press about improvement, but this is not even treading water, this is a number in which payrolls continue to fall.

Pending home sales rose slightly in July, and beat estimates, but the market is still pretty much dead.

Lifelong Peonage and Are the Main Feature

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Click for Ginormous Graphic

Barry Ritholtz has a useful infographic showing just how education loans have become the latest way that the banks keep us in debt slavery.

Note that the value of outstanding student loans is now larger than that of credit card debt, and its holders cannot discharge it through bankruptcy, ever.

This goes hand in hand with changes in the job market, where jobs that do not require a college to degree require a college degree to get, along with the explosion of for-profit schools that make false promises of a career in order to get you to overpay for trade school.

It really is remarkable just how predatory our society has become.

Deja Vu

Yet another oil rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thankfully no fatalities.

One Benefit of Dodd-Frank

It expands the jurisdiction of the SEC with regard to the malfeasance and misfeasance of the ratings agencies by allowing them to take actions that occurred in other countries:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it plans to use new financial laws to pursue credit-rating fraud initiated overseas after dropping a case against Moody’s Corp. amid uncertainty over its authority.

The SEC’s investigation found that a Moody’s ratings committee based in Europe refused to lower inflated grades on almost $1 billion of debt in 2007, the agency said in a report released yesterday. The committee declined to correct errors produced by a flawed ratings model out of concern for the firm’s reputation, the SEC report said.

“Uncertainty regarding a jurisdictional nexus between the U.S. and the relevant ratings conduct” led the SEC to drop the probe, the agency said in the report. That uncertainty was removed by the Dodd-Frank law, enacted in July, which clarifies the SEC’s power to sue for misconduct that has a substantial effect within the U.S., the report said.

Of course, a better alternative would be to change the laws that require the ratings agencies in the first place, as they have been a complete failure.

Another Reason to Fix IP Law

I thought that I did a good job of following patent law, but I was unaware that it is illegal, or more accurately a civil tort, for a company to claim a patent after it has expired.

So, if I were to get patent number 867-5309, someone could sue me for anticompetitive behavior if I were to continue to claim that my product were still protected.

Well, recent court cases have vastly expanded the law, taking this from a $500.00 award to a $500.00 award per offense, which means that it applies to each product shipped:

Marking a tube of toothpaste or paper cup with a patent that is out of date or doesn't exist has been against the law for years. It is considered anticompetitive. Until late last year, the most a violator had to worry about was paying a $500 penalty for misleading the public.

But in December, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled that defendants could be held responsible for up to $500 per offense.
Document

Lawyers for product manufacturers now fear clients are liable for up to $500 for every tube of mascara or box of garbage bags marked with an expired patent—an error that turns out to be quite common.

Now, I'm sure that the holders of patents will be lobbying Congress to fix this.

Call your Representative, and tell him, that absent meaningful change, which rolling back the expansion of patents (discovered genes, species, software, business plans, tax deductions, etc.) that have perverted the purpose of Patents in the past few decades.

Stricter rules on what is, and is not, "obvious", as well as changes to make it harder for patent trolls would help too.

Google Bomb Time

PAYPAL IS THE WORST COMPANY IN THE WORLD

You know, it would help a lot if maybe, since they actually are a bank, that someone would actually regulate them as such.

Your Moment of Zen

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He's running on the Bad Hair Party ticket

Well, Jim Trafficant has been certified as a candidate for Congress.

He got enough signatures.

He is running as an independent.

Beam me up Scotty.^*

It should make for an interesting campaign in 17^th district this year.

^*Please, JFGI.

Because Lying to the American Public is Post Partisan

I didn't follow the commentary after Obama's speech, hell, I didn't follow the speech, I was busy driving back home to help out with a family emergency^* but Rachel Maddow nails it:

"And to to have in this speech, as combat operations are ending, to have, as you point out Keith, the president not only not addressing the circumstances in which he we went to war, but these kind words for President Bush, describing his commitment to our security, despite the recklessness with which President Bush discarded that national security in favor of this war of choice, which only diminished our security, and is responsible probably for the Afghanistan war still going on today, for the depths of people who have died in Afghanistan after the time, after which that war would have ended had we not gone to Iraq, not to mention all of the people who died in Iraq," Maddow continued.

"To talk about him having a demonstrated commitment to our security, having started this war on the terms on which he started it, -- I mean, it's beyond restraint from President Obama and anyone in the pro-Iraq war, pro-Bush camp who doesn't feel like they've been given the greatest political present they never deserved was not listening to this speech," she concluded.

I understand that Obama is not big into confronting people on wrongdoing, and I understand that he wants to look forward, not back, but he lied.

He sat in the oval office, and he lied through his teeth, because he is such conflict averse that he has to praise George W. Bush.

It wasn't enough to not say anything, he felt compelled to lie to please people who will always hate him.

It's truly pathological.



^*Wife and kids are fine, but there are some health issues amongst the extended family.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?!?!?

Some guy straps suspicious canisters to his chest and takes hostages at the headquarters for the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring, MD, because he does not like their programming?

The police fatally shot him, which is an unsurprising development.

Even less surprising is that his hosting service pulled his web page, (good) and replaced it with an add for their services (tacky).

There is a lot of "te crazy" out there this summer.