Only In America

There's a deli near where I work, the Charwood Deli.

It's a little shop located in an industrial park.

It has the full range of deli sandwiches, along with hot sandwiches like cheese steaks, and their fries are very nice.

The proprietors are Korean, and they have about a dozen Korean and Korean inspired items which are quite good.

Well today, I got a Gyro, the Greek lamb based wrap.

Greek ethnic food cooked up for me, and done quite well, by Korean immigrants.

This is a microcosm of the immigrant experience in the United States, and something to be admired.

Buh Bye Jon

Huntsmman, that is.

Fundamentally, this is not really news.

The only people who really cared about him were the pack of reporters covering the Presidential campaign.

I think that the Republicans learned their lesson from the McCain debacle, when they decided to nominate someone for whom the press corps(e) had a man crush.

Yawn.

Yes

Did Psychopaths Take Over Wall Street Asylum?

This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.

Another Gem From Matt Taibbi

His latest is called, "Wall Street: Everything You Need to Know."

The nickel tour is that this is about one Jeffrey Verschleiser, who went beyond what Obama calls, "Immoral but not illegal." He engaged in what was pretty much black letter fraud, and not only has he not been called to the dock, he is flush enough to buy all 94 rooms in an Aspen hotel for his daughter's Bat Mitzvah.

This is a guy who was at the core of Bear Stearns' corrupt financial transactions that took down the firm, and he was telling his associates that he was "putting lipstick on a pig", and some of his actions appear to be straight out embezzlement.

Why he is not facing criminal prosecution is beyond me.

Read Taibbi's piece. It puts it all in context.

You Know It's an Election Year, Because ………

The Obama administration has come out against the most draconian measures in the rent seeking anti-piracy bills in the House and Senate:

The Obama administration won’t back legislation to combat online piracy if it encourages censorship, undermines cybersecurity or disrupts the structure of the Internet, three White House technology officials said.

Their statement, posted yesterday on the White House website, was a response to online petitions on legislative proposals to combat online piracy. The movie and music industries support such measures as a means of cracking down on theft.

“While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet,” Aneesh Chopra, Victoria Espinel and Howard Schmidt wrote in a blog post.

The statement marks the administration’s most significant foray into a fight between content creators and Internet companies that has been playing out in Congress. The Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote Jan. 24 on starting debate on an anti-piracy bill.

The first thing to note is that this is a very tepid condemnation.

They didn't make a Friday night release of this blog post, it was around noon on a Saturday when it was competing with the NFL playoffs, and Obama himself has not made a comment here.

That being said, I think that this is the first time that the Obama administration has come out against rent seekers as versus the general public.

I think that the Obama administration has made a tactical decision that they will get plenty of money for the campaign, and so they it isn't necessary at this time to sh%$ on a motivated and tech savvy part of the electorate.

Another Example Why the Credit Default Swap is the Toxic Waste of the Financial World

On an article about how Greek government debt may take down the Euro, we find this little gem:

Lagarde’s demand for a larger haircut smacked into an onslaught of leaks from the bond-swap negotiations between the government and private sector bond holders. First, there were rumors that the banks had largely agreed on a deal. Then there were rumors that hedge funds that had acquired some of these bonds at a discount were refusing to go along with anything. They were betting that they could profit from a default because it would trigger CDS payouts. And if the majority agreed to the haircut, they would also profit because Greece would eventually redeem the bonds.

Now, there are rumors that the government wants to compel these hedge funds to join the bailout majority. Tool: retroactive “collective-action clauses”—if a majority of bondholders agrees to the deal, the recalcitrant minority could be forced to go along.

Of course, the question is how you can make money for this.

It comes down to the fact that there is something called the "naked" credit default swap.

The nickel tour is that a CDS is an insurance policy, you pay your premiums, and in the event of "something" happening, you get a payout for the "loss".

The reason that I put "loss" in scare quotes is because unlike most forms of insurance, there is no requirement to hold an interest in the continued existence of whatever you are insuring.

This has been case since 1746 (!) when Parliament passed the Marine Insurance Act.

Basically, if I purchase a CDS on something risky, like Greek sovereign debt, I have to pay a lot of money, but let's engage in a little mental exercise:

• Assume a billion dollars in a specific debt issue.
• Buy $1 million dollars in debt at a discount from someone who is scared, let's say it's 50¢ on the dollar. So you spend $500,000.
• You purchase a CDS on the whole issue, let's assume that it's a 30% payment, or $300 million.
• Refuse to accept a haircut, triggering a default, and a full payout on the CDS.
• So, you spent $300.5 million, and get a $1 billion payout.

This is vulture capitalism at it's worse.  You don't just wait for something to die, you figure a way to pluck out the eyes to hasten the demise.

This is a microcosm for everything that is wrong with "Anglo Saxon" hyper-capitalism.

Good News on the Campaign Front

On the Congressional side.

First, in Maryland's 4^th district, Donna Edwards will be running unopposed in the primary, former PG County States Attorney (DA) Glenn Ivey declined to run, which basically means that she will be reelected.

The primary was actually a matter of some concern, because the redistricting moved a lot of Montgomery County was moved out, and a lot Anne Arundel county moved in.

Because AA county is more Republican, it meant that PG County, and the (largely corrupt) PG County machine had a lot more influence over any primary contest, and Edwards is not a their friend, having taken down their golden boy, the then-incumbent Al Wynn in 2008.

Not only is she honest, but she is an unabashed liberal, so 2 snaps up.

Additionally, in the Massachusetts Senate race, Elizabeth Warren out-raised Scott Brown in 2011, $8.9 million for the year and $5.7 million for the quarter as versus $8.7 million and $3.2 million, though Brown still has about twice her cash on hand, $12.8 million versus $6 million.

Considering the fact that Brown is Wall Street's favorite Senate candidate, this is surprising, and welcome, news.

Seriously, We Are Becoming Incapable of Develping New Weapons Systems

We've seen this with the Future Combat Systems, EFV (the landing craft former known as the AAAV), the Comanche helicopter, DDG-10000, and the slow motion implosion of the LCS and the JSF.

We see that the programs start with over-ambitious requirements, which lead to protracted development schedules, escalating costs.

This leads changes to the requirements, leading to further schedule and cost slippage, rinse, lather, repeat.

I'm generally not to concerned about this, I'm of the belief that superior training, tactics, and situational awareness will win the day. The success of the F4F Wildcat versus A6M Rei-sen (Zero) is an example of this.

Superior tactics and situational awareness are largely function of effective communication, so to my mind the cancelation of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is a bigger deal than most of the higher profile cancellations:

…

What tied them down was their radios: a forest of plastic and metal cubes sprouting antennae of different lengths and sizes. They had short-range models for talking with the reconstruction team; longer-range versions for reaching headquarters 25 miles away; and a backup satellite radio in case the mountains blocked the transmission. An Air Force controller carried his own radio for talking to jet fighters overhead and a separate radio for downloading streaming video from the aircraft

…

Almost fifteen years ago, the Army launched an ambitious program, the Joint Tactical Radio System [3], aimed at developing several highly-compatible “universal” radios. Together, the JTRS radios would replace nearly all older radios in the American arsenal, greatly simplifying communications and freeing up combat units “to tap into the network on the move,” according to Paul Mehney, an Army spokesman.

But JTRS, pronounced “jitters,” failed to live up to its promise. Overly ambitious, poorly managed and saddled by incompatible goals, the program burned through $6 billion dollars while producing little working hardware. Delays forced the Army to spend $11 billion more on old-style radios to meet the urgent demands of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The Army eventually reduced the planned purchase of JTRS radios and cut the types of radios in development. In October, it canceled the vehicle-mounted version of JTRS, the most important of the new radios, which by then had grown to the size of a dormitory-sized refrigerator. For all practical purposes, JTRS is dead — at least in its original guise.

…

JTRS’ history is one of grand but naive technological ambition colliding with the unbending laws of physics and the unforgiving exigencies of modern warfare. After years of work, the Army discovered for itself what experts had been warning all along: It’s impossible for a single radio design to handle all the military’s different communications tasks.

The more capabilities that the Army and prime contractor Boeing packed into JTRS, the bigger, more complex and more expensive it became — until it was too bulky and unreliable for combat. In its relentless drive for conceptual simplicity, the Army found itself mired in mechanical complexity.

The Army wasn’t alone in its doomed pursuit of a technological pipe dream. The past decade has by many accounts been an era of grand ambition, flawed management and wasted treasure for all the military branches. A lengthy Harvard Business School study for the Pentagon concluded in April that despite many attempts at reform, “major defense programs still require more than 15 years to deliver less capability than planned, often at two to three times the planned cost."

Unlike most of the high tech systems, which have next to no relevance in our current conflicts, there are very real shortcomings in the complex and frequently non-interoperable hodgepodge of communications equipment used by our forces. (The article linked above refers to one such situation in Afghanistan)

If our defense procurement and R&D system takes 15 years to take a radio system from concept through cancellation, we are completely f%$#ed.

Our own corrupt military-industrial complex appears ready to implode under the weight of its own dysfunction.

This is not the Best Newspaper Correction Ever

Correction, New York Times, 30 December 2011

Yes, it's an amusing correction, but it's not the best ever.

The reigning champion, this year, as it has been for nearly 100 years, the Grauniad's^* Corrections and amplifications column.

The material there is extensive and voluminous, but I believe that the best correction of all time comes from their effort on 2 February 2009:

The absence of corrections yesterday was due to a technical hitch rather than any sudden onset of accuracy.

Seriously, corrections simply do not get any better than that.

^*According to the Wiki, The Guardian, formerly the Manchester Guardian in the UK. It's nicknamed the Grauniad because of its penchant for typographical errors, "The nickname The Grauniad for the paper originated with the satirical magazine Private Eye. It came about because of its reputation for frequent and sometimes unintentionally amusing typographical errors, hence the popular myth that the paper once misspelled its own name on the page one masthead as The Gaurdian, though many recall the more inventive The Grauniad."

Your Friday Scott Walker Dump

First, it looks like they will deliver something like ¾ of a million signatures to recall him, about a 50% buffer, some time next week.

What's more it looks like a major scandal is brewing, we could see major revelations just in time for the recall elections.

First, we have 3 of his aids accused of embezzling from a veterans charity, and one of them was tied to his room mate's trolling for child sex.

And finally, his 2010 campaign is charged with over 1,000 violations of campaign finance law, and faces over $½ million dollars in fines.

Pass the popcorn.

The Future of Unskilled Labor

Dean Baker on the fact that the people who lauded Alan "Bubbles" Greenspan upon his retirement in 2006 still have lucrative jobs working in senior management at the Federal Reserve:

BTW, as noted in the article, many of the people at these Fed meetings are still in top policy making positions. This shows that the U.S. economy still produces good-paying jobs for people without skills.

H/t Atrios.

Heh.

It looks like it will be just Romney and Paul on the Virginia primary ballot, because the VA Republican party actually started verifying signatures:

Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who came within a few votes of winning the Iowa caucuses, didn't get on the ballot in Virginia or the District of Columbia. His campaign also filed incomplete slates of delegates in Illinois and Ohio, which could limit his ability to win delegates in those key states.

Virginia has been a tough ballot to crack for several GOP candidates because the state requires campaigns to collect signatures from at least 10,000 registered voters. Romney and Paul were the only ones who made theballot for the March 6 primary.

Perry sued, and was later joined in the lawsuit by Gingrich, Huntsman and Santorum. But on Friday, a federal judge in Richmond refused to add them to the ballot, saying the candidates should have challenged Virginia's primary qualifying rules earlier.

Whatever you say about Paul, his campaign has it's sh%$ together, and Romney, with his high dollar campaign, is on all the ballots as well.

The rest of them are running a junior varsity campaign.

It's On (Sort of)

Stephen Colbert has passed the Colbert super PAC to Jon Stewart, (the special effects involved could be best described as "low budget") and established an "exploratory committee" to "explore" run for the Republican nomination in his native South Carolina.

Cool.

He could probably beat John Huntsman.

The video will be up on Comedy Central tomorrow some time.

Good News Everyone! Bigots Don't Get to Steal Property.

So a bunch of bigots were upset with the Episcopal Church not hating on te ghey enough, so they left the Episcopal Church, and affiliated with a "Kill the Gays" Anglican Bishop in Nigeria.

Well, now a judge has ruled that their churches are property of the Diocese of Virginia:

A Virginia judge has ruled against seven conservative congregations that broke away from the Episcopal Church in 2006, rejecting their argument that they should be able to keep some $40 million in church real estate that the national denomination also claims.

The case has drawn worldwide attention because it involves a cluster of large, prominent churches with well-known conservative pastors and because the issues at hand — particularly the Episcopal Church’s acceptance of same-sex relationships as equal to heterosexual ones — are roiling much of organized religion. Various Protestant congregations in particular have wound up in litigation across the country.

The 113-page ruling was handed down Tuesday by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows.

A spokeswoman for the congregations said they were considering their next step, but a letter sent to some 4,600 congregants sounded as though they are bracing for the worst. Each congregation has a contingency plan if they have to vacate, said Caitlin Bozell Manaois.

Couldn't happen to a more repulsive group of people.

For too many people, religion is just an excuse to hate.

BTW, it appears that Caitlin Bozell Manaois is Brent Bozell's daughter.  (She works at CRC Public Relations, which is one of his front groups)

Brent Bozell is the head of the "Media Research Center" and is probably best known for referring to Barack Obama as a, "skinny ghetto crackhead."

Manning is Referred For Court Martial

22 counts, including "aiding the enemy, which carries a potential death penalty, for leaking thousands of files to Wikileaks.

It appears that the "the enemy" is the American public.

It's a f%$#ing kangaroo court, as evidenced by the convening authority refusing to allow the most of the defense's witnesses, because the goal, of both the military and the Obama administration is to suborn perjury from Manning, so that they can manufacture a case with which to prosecute Julian Assange.

It's Jobless Thursday

Not good news.

Initial claims just rose to 399,000, up 24K from last weeks "already revised upward" number, basically the dividing line (rule of thumb 400K) between getting worse, and not getting worse, with the less volatile 4-week moving average rising by 7,750 to 381,750, with continuing claims rising as well, though emergency claims fell.

One step forward, one step back.

Supreme Courts Says that there are Limits to Campaign Donations

So, if you are a foreign person, you are still forbidden from making campaign donations:

In a terse four words, the Supreme Court on Monday issued an order upholding prohibitions against foreigners making contributions to influence American elections.

The decision clamped shut an opening that some thought the court had created two years ago in its Citizens United decision, when it relaxed campaign-finance limits on corporations and labor unions. On Monday the Supreme Court, upholding a lower court’s decision in Bluman, et al., v. Federal Election Commission, refused to extend its reasoning in Citizens United to cover foreigners living temporarily here.

Foreign nationals, other than lawful permanent residents, are completely banned from donating to candidates or parties, or making independent expenditures in federal, state or local elections.

The Supreme Court’s order did not discuss the merits or suggest that there was any dissent among the justices.

It sounds to me like they just said that foreign persons cannot make campaign donations, but under Citizens United, foreign corporations can.

Our political system, brought to you by BMW, the ultimate driving machine.

I Don't Want to Start Any Blasphemous Rumours…*

Because the one of the Vatican's child safety coordinator has just been sentenced to jail for downloading child pr0n:

He was arrested after uploading images of pre-pubescent boys on to the Ning social networking website.

Police officers who traced him to his home in Plymouth, Devon, found more than 4,000 child porn images, mainly of boys aged 10 to 12, on his church-supplied computer and a memory stick when they raided the house in Penrose Road.

The court heard that 4,389 images were found on the laptop and memory stick.

The majority, 3,721, were at Level One, the lowest level for abusive images.

But there were 120 at Level Four, which includes scenes of child rape, and 12 at Level Five, which can include scenes of torture and sadism.

Jarvis, who the court heard claimed he was abused as a child, was sentenced at the city's crown court after admitted 12 counts of making, possessing and distributing indecent images at a previous magistrates' court hearing.

You know, notwithstanding the assertions of people like ……… You know ……… the Pope that it's all an aberrations and caused by our wicked society.

I think that a bit of self examination is order here, because lashing out at the rest of the world over this seems to be just a bit delusional.

H/t Americablog.

^*The refrain from the Depeche Mode song Blasphemous Rumors is, "I don't want to start any blasphemous rumours, But I think that God's got a sick sense of humor, And when I die I expect to find Him laughing."

The New Beige Book is Out

It's showing some improvement, but nothing to crow about, the quote, "expanded at a modest to moderate pace," is a pretty good description.

The improvement is pretty modest, but it's in eleven of the twelve Fed Banks' regions.

OWS Update

Good news everyone!

---

I invented a device that makes you read this in your head using my voice!

Civil rights group have gotten the police to take the barricades around Zuccoti (Freedom) Park.

H/t MP at the Stellar Parthenon BBS, who is probably at the park as we speak.

Honestly, I expect Mike Bloomberg's bully boys will find a way to ignore the law in just a couple of days.

Videos of some cop beating up a crippled child at a protest to follow in a few days.

Full statement after the break.

Louis Freeh to Account Holders, Drop Dead

You knew it was coming when this corrupt rat-bastard was appointed trustee. Now he's trying to f%$# the account holders out of the money that JP Morgan Chase and the rest of the usual suspects stole from the:

MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF)’s creditors should have some priority to be repaid by the bankrupt estate, said Chapter 11 trustee Louis Freeh, citing intercompany loans made between the failed parent and its operating unit.

Freeh, representing the interests of creditors of the parent company, commented on the legal principles that will govern repayments in papers filed late yesterday in Manhattan bankruptcy court. Former customers of the broker-dealer unit, seeking an estimated $1.2 billion missing from their accounts, are being repaid in a related case overseen by a different trustee, James Giddens, appointed under the Securities Investor Protection Act.

The holding company has “substantial intercompany claims” against the broker-dealer unit on account of former intercompany loans, and any recoveries of that money shouldn’t be “diverted” to customers, giving them a priority at the expense of creditors of the parent company, Freeh said.

Freeh is concerned that “an inappropriate interpretation” of the law may lead Giddens to deny the rights of creditors to recover from property that was never deposited by them, lawyers for Freeh wrote.
Customer Pool

The conflict is “not whether certain estate property can be distributed to customers, but whether estate assets that would otherwise be available for distribution to MF Global Inc.’s creditors can be reallocated to the customer pool,” Freeh said.

Seriously, the assets he is referring to were stolen by those "creditors".

First, he obstructs the investigation of the theft of client accounts, and now he's trying to f%$# the account holders.

It must be nice to be able to be so blatantly corrupt and get paid for it.

Mitt Wins, Huntsman is Toast

Basically, Huntsman needed to come in 2nd place, and he's a distant third:

Mitt Romney swept to victory in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, turning back a ferocious assault from rivals who sought to disqualify him in the eyes of conservatives, in a contest that failed to anoint a strong opponent to slow his march to the Republican nomination.

Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, won by a double-digit margin, a validation of his strategy to use his neighboring state to cement his standing as the front-runner. The candidates who had hoped to use the primary to emerge as his leading rival fared poorly, leaving a fractured Republican opposition.

“Tonight we celebrate. Tomorrow we go back to work,” said Mr. Romney, who strode into his victory party at Southern New Hampshire University less than 30 minutes after the final polls closed to present himself as the candidate to beat for the Republican nomination.

Representative Ron Paul of Texas, whose candidacy has never concerned Mr. Romney, finished second. Former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, who staked his entire campaign here, placed a distant third but pledged to fight on.

A week after winning the Iowa caucuses by just eight votes, Mr. Romney pieced together a coalition of moderate and conservative voters. The margin was more comfortable than commanding, but he will benefit handsomely by having five rivals still competing against one another to emerge as his main opponent as the race moves to South Carolina.

So, it's now Mitt's race to lose:

• Huntsman bet it all on New Hampshire, and lost.
• Paul won't win, ever
• Santorum flamed out, Google Bombed out, lobbyist cashed in out, and crazied out.
• People now remember that Newt Gingrich is that guy who used to be Newt Gingrich.
• Rick Perry is too stupid for people who fondly remember George W. Bush.

What will be fun is watching Newt going after Mitt for being a successful capitalist while the Frothy Mixture and Perry compete for the Neanderthal vote, which is big in the Palmetto State 'Phant primary.

The only question now is whether Perry of Santorum gets outed in an airport bathroom first.

Next, Dump Geithner

In a move that should spurprise no one, William Daley is leaving his post as Obama's Chief of Staff:

President Obama announced Monday that the White House chief of staff, William M. Daley, was stepping down, jolting the top ranks of his administration less than a year before he faces a difficult re-election. Mr. Daley will be replaced by Jacob J. Lew, the budget director and a seasoned Washington insider with ties to Capitol Hill.

Mr. Daley, a fellow Chicagoan who was recruited by Mr. Obama a year ago to help strike bipartisan legislative deals, struggled to find his footing in a ferociously partisan Washington and failed to help his boss broker a huge budget agreement with Congressional Republicans last summer. His departure interrupts a run of good news for the White House, with tentative signs of life in the job market, victory over Republicans on the payroll tax and Republican presidential candidates assailing one another on the campaign trail.

This was inevitable once much of his duties were pulled a few months back.

Basically, he was incompetent, and he got Harry "Milquetoast" Reid to hate his guts, which appears to be a fairly tough thing to do.

Of course, the masters of the universe in finance must be reassured at all cost, as when Daley (JP Morgan Chase), replaced Emanuel (Fanny Mae), he will be replaced by Jacob Lew (Citigroup).

Lew made a lot of money betting against the housing market for Citi, so we can expect more ass-kissing directed Wall Street's way.

If this is an attempt to reshuffle his organization and political posture for the upcoming election, he's firing blanks.

If Obama really wants to win the election, he needs to start prosecuting the banksters, starting with Robert Rubin.

He's carry more than 40 states if he did that.

Just When Thought that the 'Phants Could Not Get Any More Repulsive

They have slipped a provision into the payroll tax extension which would deny unemployment compensation for people who lack a high school diploma:

For legislation to extend the payroll tax cut through the end of 2012, House Republicans are expected to push for a provision on unemployment insurance (UI) that is appalling even by current Washington standards. Neither President Obama nor Congress should accept any payroll-tax legislation that includes it. Here’s why:

The provision, part of a full-year payroll-tax bill that the House passed in December, would deny UI benefits to any worker who lacks a high school diploma or GED and is not enrolled in classes to get one or the other — regardless of how long the person worked or whether he or she has access to adult education, which itself has been subject to significant budget cuts in the past few years and is heavily oversubscribed.

The proposal would deny UI benefits to hundreds of thousands of workers — many of them middle-aged — who have worked hard, played by the rules, and effectively paid UI taxes for years and who then were laid off due to no fault of their own.

This would violate the basic compact that the UI system has embodied since its creation under President Roosevelt in 1935 — that people who have amassed a sufficient record of work, and on whose behalf UI taxes have faithfully been paid, may receive UI benefits for a temporary period if they are laid off and are searching for a new job.

Republicans need to find a way to blame the victim. It's in their DNA.

Just put on the f%$#ing glasses, and look.

Just really look, and understand that these are two sorts of people with the 'Phants, the aliens, and the people who gleefully say, "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords."

Outside Fenway, In the Cold, Shaking Hands

That's one Elizabeth Warren, and she looks like she is enjoying herself.

This is a big change from Martha Coakley's infamous quote, "As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?"

It's why she's leading Scott Brown by 7% in the polls right now.

I'm just hoping that she can sustain the inevitable assault from the 'Phant slime machine.

There's a Reason You Aren't Seeing Pat Buchanan on MSNBC

It appears that he has been suspended, and looks on his way out the door for his latest bigoted screed, Suicide of a Superpower.

It's only about 4 decades late. 

This guy has been peddling bigotry since he was a speech writer for Nixon.

I only hope that his suspension becomes permanent.

(on edit)

I think that his appearances on white supremacist radio to hawk his book might have had something to do with this.

Irony, Neh?

Have you heard the latest joke?

It goes like this, Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum has declared that Iran must not have nuclear weapons because they are a theocracy.

This from a guy who had declared himself Jesus' Candidate.



Who says that irony is dead?

We Are Doomed…

A few days ago, I wrote about the wife of Switzerland's central bank president engaging in insider trading.

Well what do you know, it ain't the wife after all, it turns out that it was Philipp Hildebrand, president of the Swiss National Bank doing the insider trading:

Switzerland's central bank was embroiled in an insider trading scandal after bank chief Philipp Hildebrand was accused of speculating on currency transactions only weeks before he instituted dramatic policy changes that shifted prices in his favour.

The accusations, which have rocked the Swiss banking industry, were made by Swiss weekly newspaper Die Weltwoche in a statement before its Thursday publication. It said that previous reports that Hildebrand's wife was responsible for the foreign exchange transactions were misplaced and it was the bank chief who was behind the purchase and selling of currency that triggered an investigation by the Swiss National Bank (SNB).

The bank chairman also made several other dollar and euro transactions on the foreign exchange market between March and October last year, according to Die Weltwoche, which is close to the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP).

Let me explain just how f%$#ed we all are.

The guy in charge of regulations for the Swiss is engaging in insider trading.

If the Swiss are screwing with banking, it's not just the end of banking as we know it, it's the end of the the concept of money as we know it.

Stockpile canned goods and ammunition, because you can't eat gold.

OK, This is Good Policy from the White House

But I'd approve of anything that had the effect of f%$#ing the airlines:

Starting in late January, the Obama administration will force airlines to be more transparent about the full cost of tickets they often disguise in ads touting cheap fares. Low-price airlines Southwest, Spirit, and Allegiant are going to court to stop the rules, arguing that they violate corporate free speech rights.

But consumer advocates say the changes are a positive development for travelers who have been swindled by airlines for too long:

………

This is common sense regulation, and as to the argument business have a free speech right to defraud consumers, talk to the cat.

First Ron Paul, Now RuPaul

Are politicking in New Hampshire:

Drag superstar and reality TV host RuPaul made an appearance on the campaign trail in New Hampshire on Saturday.

Looking spruce in an ice blue tailored wool coat and studious-looking, horn-rimmed glasses, the nearly seven foot tall “Supermodel” singer was “campaigning” in the state. He announced that his goal is to raise awareness that he is not Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), and that he is not running for president. The latter piece of news was met by the assembled crowd with some disappointment.

The International Man/Woman of Mystery then issued a challenge to Ron Paul and all of the other Republican candidates before reminding the crowd, “You better vote.”

If he were in the debates, it would be one for the ages.

The oddest thing here is that if he were running for the Republican nomination, I think that it would actually make it a more reality based community.

We are living in very strange times.

The Euro Crisis Starts to Hit Defense Contractors

It looks like Italy is having 2^nd thoughts about its JSF purchase:(paid subscription required)

The Italian government is ushering in a new round of defense cuts in which, for the first time, the fate of Rome’s participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will be seriously threatened.

The newly launched defense review not only has sweeping implications for Italy’s defense ambitions but also rings in a further belt-tightening in Europe among countries that are just beginning to come to grips with the scale of their budget and debt problems. Spain, where a new conservative government is grappling with greater-than-anticipated economic troubles, may follow with budget reductions. France is also expected to scale back defense spending after presidential elections in May.

In Italy, much of the work on the military review remains to be completed. Nevertheless, a sharp reduction in the number of F-35s Italy will buy is virtually certain, military officials say. At least a third of the 131 fighters slated for procurement will likely fall under the budget ax, with some minority parties arguing for an outright program termination.

Rome is one of the largest international buyers of the F-35—after the U.K. drastically cut its procurement objective in its 2010 spending review. Italy plans to spend €13 billion ($16.7 billion) to buy and sustain both the F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing and the F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing versions, though it has not ordered any aircraft yet.

I wonder how people are going to start feeling about the austerity fairy fixing everything now that it's defense spending on the block.

The folks who endorse austerity always seem to think that it's just things like healthcare and the social safety net that need to be cut, and that somehow, the bloated derfense procurement programs all over the world will somehow continue apace.

I think not.

Well, What Do You Know, Another DoD Cost Overrun

The Gerald R. Ford, the lead ship in the first new US carrier class in 35 years is seriously over budget:

The Navy has estimated a worst-case cost overrun of as much as $1.1 billion for the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, the service's most expensive warship.

The carrier is being built in Newport News by Huntington Ingalls Industries under a cost-plus, incentive-fee contract in which the Navy pays for most of the overruns. Even so, the service's efforts to control expenses may put the company's $579.2 million profit at risk, according to the Navy.

A review of the carrier's rising costs began in August after the Navy's program manager indicated that the "most likely" overrun had risen to $884.7 million, or about 17 percent over the contract's target price of $5.16 billion. That's up from a $650 million overrun estimated in April, according to internal Navy figures made available to Bloomberg News. The worst-case assessment would be about 21 percent over the target.

I would suggest, given the record of the DoD, as well as the well documented issues with getting its new Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapult, that the worst case assessment is at least 10% below the final overrun.

Yes, Some of these Folks are Actually Guilty of Bad Things

But it's right to dismiss charges against all the kids that the cash for kids judges sent up:

A judge brought in to clean up after a "kids for cash" scandal has expunged every juvenile court case decided by a Pennsylvania jurist convicted of corruption.

Senior Judge Arthur Grim was selected almost three years ago to review juvenile court cases decided by former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, who's serving time in jail for his involvement in the corruption case.

As a result of Grim's efforts, records have been expunged for more than 2,000 juveniles sentenced by Ciavarella.

Ciavarella and another ex-judge are serving federal prison sentences for sending juveniles to for-profit youth detention centers in return for money.

Grim called the handling of juvenile cases in Luzerne County a judicial process "run amok," and he gave recommendations to prevent such renegade justice again.

Pennsylvania State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille said Thursday that Grim has suggested many reforms that require legislative action, but the courts have already changed certain rules to treat kids more fairly.

When the checks and balances fail so badly that judges manage to get kickbacks for sending kids to private prisons, and no one says anything for years, expunging every conviction is least that we owe them as a society.

Background here.

It's Bank Failure Friday!!!!

Well, there are no bank failures so far this year, but there was a credit union taken into conservatorship

And here are the credit union closings:

1. People for People CDCU​, Philadelphia, PA

Full NCUA list

No picture yet, because the graph is only FDIC closures.

The Non-Farm Payroll Numbers Are Out

And the numbers are good in an anemic sort of way, with unemployment (U-3) falling from 8.7% to 8.3%, and non-farm payrolls rising by 200K.

So how good is this?

Not very good, according to the Shrill One:

First, note that there are still about 6 million fewer jobs than there were at the end of 2007 — and that we would normally have expected to have added around 5 million jobs over a four-year period. So we’re 11 million jobs down — and we need at least 100,000 jobs a month just to keep up with working-age population growth. Do the math, and you’ll see that it would take 9 or 10 years of growth at this rate to restore full employment.

Alternatively, note that during the Clinton years — all 8 of them — the economy added around 230,000 jobs a month. As it did that, the unemployment rate fell about 3 1/2 percentage points — which is about what we’d need from here to get back to something that felt like full employment. Again, this suggests that we’re looking at something like a decade-long haul to have full recovery.

Not good enough.

Deep Thought

H/t JR at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

I Know Who I'm voting for This Year

I'm voting for Canada.

I'm, so glad that I don't live in a swing state, because don't have to hold my nose and choose between voting for Gordon Gecko (Mitt Romney), and a Gordon Gecko fanboi (Obama/Geithner).

Well, Now We Know Why Louis Freeh Is the Preferred Agent of Choice for a Coverup

Because he is a thoroughly dishonest ratf%$#, and the tell on this is that he refuses to use email:

As Eric Falkenstein observes:

People who meticulously avoid email should not be trusted, because it is simply too calculating, as if they know they are regularly committing crimes. A phone conversation can always be disavowed, you just say you were talking about last weekend's bar mitzvah.

If his behavior as MF Global bankruptcy trustee, where he is refusing to turn over information to regulators about where customer account money went, (He's making a bogus claim that the evidence of theft is covered by attorney client privilige) is an indication, he's going to be a little boy rapist's best friend at Penn State, where he is in charge of the coverup investigation.

Between his incompetence and his corrupt hackery, it's a wonder that anyone hires him.  It's like hiring John Dillinger to be in charge of your bank's security.  Bernie Madoff has more credibility.

Just Desserts

You know, generally, I'm not in favor or murder. 

That being said, when I heard about this Chinese Tycoon's poisoning, and I looked at the recipe, I thought, well, he had it coming:

Poisonous Herb Spices Cat Stew in Felonious Pot

By DAVID BARBOZA

SHANGHAI — There was one very disagreeable ingredient in the steaming hot pot of stew that may have killed a Chinese tycoon. And it was not the cat meat.

The police have detained a local township official on suspicion that he murdered the tycoon, a business associate who may have caught the official cheating, by dropping a poisonous herb into a cat-meat hot pot, a shared stew that is a local delicacy, China’s state-run news media reported Wednesday.

(emphasis mine)

I understand that they have different customs and dietary habits, but cat?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Another Very Nice Takedown

I love it when economists mud wrestle, but a number of the conservative fresh water^* economists, Kantoos and Tyler Cowen, have complained that Krugman is being mean about them.

I love Krugman's response to this criticism:

So Alex Tabarrok thinks I treat everyone who disagrees with me as mendacious idiots, and Tyler Cowen says that I always demonize my opponents.

I plead innocent. I only treat people as mendacious idiots if they are mendacious idiots.

Seriously: I have some big disagreements with Ken Rogoff, but if you use the little search box up there on the upper right and enter “Rogoff” I think you’ll find that I have always treated him with respect. On the other hand, enter “Heritage” and you’ll find me pretty scornful — but with very good reason! And I always document what I’m saying.

Now, what about people like Cochrane? You need to bear two things in mind. First, he and his friends entered this whole debate by declaring that Keynesian economics of any stripe was total nonsense, “fairy tales” that nobody serious believes. Then they proceeded to make howling, basic errors. And I was supposed to respond politely? I’ve never gone ad hominem on them — but I’ve called nonsense and ignorance when I see them. So?

I think that this is a valid response, and fairly straightforward, and measured.

On the other hand, Brad Delong goes seriously medieval on John Cochrain, and ends with:

What do I see here? A bunch of overheated and largely false rhetoric. A bunch of apparently false claims about the way the world works. A bunch of false claims about pretty basic economic theories. Occasionally correct claims that are then--almost invariably taken back--by something that claims (for reasons I do not understand) to be a refutation.

Overall, it does not seem to me to add up to a coherent argument.

Kantoos, what else do you want me to do with this?

Seriously, it's a very nice Fisking.

It also proves a point that Krugman is wont to make, that salt water economists can cogently discuss fresh water economics, but fresh water economists cannot cogently discuss salt water economics.

Basically, when salt water economists teach, they teach both theories, and fresh water economists only teach their theories, which is why we see things like the walkout from former Bush Administration Economist Greg Mankiw's intro to economics class at Harvard (yes, technically a salt water school, but Mankiw is a fresh water economist) because they found narrow and parochial.

This for a bloody introductory survey course that should expose them to the full range of theories.

But I think that I'm ranting here a bit.

^*If you look at schools of economics, those in the center of the country, (fresh water) on lakes and rivers, tend to be extremely conservative, either Austrian, or Milton Friedman, while those on the coasts (salt water) tend to be more liberal.