Nicole on Erin Burnett's reaction to Ann Romney's speech last night.
In case you had forgotten, this is the same Erin Burnett who's Glenn Greenwald talks about in this video clip.
The discussion of Erin begins at about 3:30 of this clip.
Is it any wonder she finds Ann so inspiring?
29 August 2012
More on the CNN Fiasco
Athenae on the really wimpish reaction of CNN, and the press in general, to the nut-throwing incident:
It's not just about the racism, though I don't think they'd have used the word "animal" to refer to a white crew. It's about a media culture that for 30 years now has heard from the right wing in in this country that it should be ashamed of itself and has loudly and resoundingly agreed.Your liberal media....
It's what you get when you take somebody who says the New York Times building should be blown up, and put her on the cover of a magazine because she's influential and controversial and maybe hey, she's just kidding around!
It's what you get when you hire people as your commentators and consultants who think urinating on corpses is hilarious, and call Supreme Court justices "goat-fucking child molester"s.
It's what you get when you pay sex tourists with drug problems insane amounts of money to spend hours on the radio calling the president of the United States everything right up to the very edge of nigger, and then quote him as if he's a person whose opinion matters.
It's what you get when you invite people on the air who hate you. Who hate what you do. Who hate what you stand for. Who hate everything you are. Who say, out loud, that the world would be better off without you. Who think you're a detriment to society. Who "joke" about killing you.
It's what you get when you ignore the insults, laugh off the threats, listen thoughtfully to the invective. It's what you get when you not only allow yourself to be treated with disrespect, but you agree with those who don't respect you, and use the precious time and ink and space you have to give their already magnified opinions an even bigger view.
It's what you get when day after day after day after day you just sit there and take it. You've been ignoring the bully for three decades now. Has he gone away yet? Has he stopped?
None of this is about individual reporters, really. It's about their bosses, who on the basis of wanting to pal around with fancy senators and fellow rich assholes, tell their own employees they don't matter. And the employees, so demoralized and beaten down by years and years and years of cutbacks and closure threats and endless speeches about how lucky they are to work for the love of their noble craft, either can't respond, or if they do, their bosses are quick to slap them down for fear of accusations of political bias.
What's the end result? This. Exactly this. And what's CNN's response this morning? Are they outraged? Defending their crew member? Sticking up for their own? Making it clear to the general public that this kind of treatment is beyond the pale?
CNN also acknowledged the incident, saying, "CNN can confirm there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment.”That'll show 'em.
What's Gotten Into Bloomberg?
They're on a roll:
The theme of Chris Christie’s Republican National Convention keynote address tonight was “hard truths.” The hard truths Chris Christie’s mother told, the ones he has told as governor of New Jersey, and the ones he says Mitt Romney will tell if elected president.
But sometimes, when telling the hard truth is especially hard, Chris Christie dissembles.
And Mitt Romney -- well, I will just note Christie’s use of the future tense. Christie promises Romney “will tell us the hard truths.” It would be hard to contend that he has done so in the past.
The Biggest Contributors
From the Fiscal Times via Angry Bear, the list of the Top 9 contributors to this year's campaigns:
No mention of the Koch Brothers. Hmm, I wonder why.
Note that Fiscal Times is not the most unbiased source. Their description of the NEA:
1. SHELDON & MIRIAM ADELSON, CONSERVATIVE $38.8 MILLIONDan adds it up:
2. HAROLD & ANNETTE SIMMONS, CONSERVATIVE $15.7 MILLION
3. BOB PERRY, CONSERVATIVE $12.0 MILLION
4. NAT'l EDUCATION ASSC. LIBERAL (3 million members) $5.3 MILLION
5. SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LIBERAL
(2.1 million members) $3.7 MILLION
6. PETER THIEL, LIBERTARIAN $3.9 MILLION
7. FRED EYCHANER, LIBERAL $3.7 MILLI ON
8. CONTRAN CORP., CONSERVATIVE $3.0 MILLION
9, JERRY PERENCHIO, CONSERVATIVE $2.6 MILLION
Score: Libertarians: $3.9 millionA commenter points out that if you divide the union contributions by the number of union members, it works out to about $1.50 each (actually about $1.80, but who's counting)....And note that Harold Simmons is the Owner and Chairman of Contran....
Liberals: $12.7 million
Conservatives: $72.1 million
No mention of the Koch Brothers. Hmm, I wonder why.
Note that Fiscal Times is not the most unbiased source. Their description of the NEA:
The NEA is the nation’s largest teachers union, representing an estimated 3.2 million public school employees. The group has been on the defensive because of union rules that keep failing schools operating and failing teachers on the job. The NEA has also been defending its pension payouts. After Republicans took control of the statehouses in the 2010 election, it led a major effort to recall Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, which failed, but succeeded in rolling back Ohio’s repeal of public employee collective bargaining rights.Obviously, it's union rules that are causing the failures....
Classy
Talk about animals....
Update #1:
From TPM:
Update #2:
Josh comments on CNN's reaction....
Update #1:
From TPM:
After a Republican Convention attendee allegedly threw nuts at a black CNN camerawoman, saying, "This is how we feed the animals," the RNC Convention said in a statement:I wonder which part they found objectionable....
“Yesterday two attendees exhibited deplorable behavior. Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated.”
Update #2:
Josh comments on CNN's reaction....
28 August 2012
Lies, Lies and More Lies
There has been a lot - I mean a WHOLE lot - of chatter over the last week or so about how the lying undertaken by the campaign(s) has gotten out of hand. I actually think that its been much worse on the GOP side - they've been at it much longer than the Dems - but I also agree that the Dems have stretched the truth a bit.
Here's a sample of what I've been reading on this topic:
Digby, today.
Greg Sargent, today.
Jay Rosen, today.
Of course, a related issue is how partisans - particularly in the press - willingly do the same thing. Of course we all expect it from Fox, but when it comes to mainstream outlets like Newsweek it really gets our dander up. Last week's cover story by Niall Ferguson is a case in point, generated a storm of criticism about how he deliberately mislead his readers on a number of points. Matthew O'Brien at The Atlantic did yeoman's work in dissecting all the half-truths and outright lies in that article.
Republicans have created their own "reality" that differs from truth as most people understand it. This has been at the core of their strategy for a long time. And that fact was made clear in this famous quote from the Ron Suskind article "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush" published in October 2004:
Americans can't be duped forever. There is always that famous quote by Abe Lincoln:
Here's a sample of what I've been reading on this topic:
Digby, today.
Greg Sargent, today.
Jay Rosen, today.
Of course, a related issue is how partisans - particularly in the press - willingly do the same thing. Of course we all expect it from Fox, but when it comes to mainstream outlets like Newsweek it really gets our dander up. Last week's cover story by Niall Ferguson is a case in point, generated a storm of criticism about how he deliberately mislead his readers on a number of points. Matthew O'Brien at The Atlantic did yeoman's work in dissecting all the half-truths and outright lies in that article.
Republicans have created their own "reality" that differs from truth as most people understand it. This has been at the core of their strategy for a long time. And that fact was made clear in this famous quote from the Ron Suskind article "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush" published in October 2004:
The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."Remember, that's how we got mislead into the Iraq war - as a result of their creating their own reality. The problem was that it really was a false one, a fact most Americans quickly caught on to.
Americans can't be duped forever. There is always that famous quote by Abe Lincoln:
You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you cant fool all of the people all the time.The problem is, you only have to fool enough to win a majority of the electoral votes.
Didn't expect this from Bloomberg...
But wow:
As we listen to Republican candidates and voters across the country, we hear something less admirable: carping about people who are on government support. Some speak disparagingly of them as the “moocher class” for paying no federal income taxes while getting food stamps, government health care and unemployment checks.
President Barack Obama, the plaint goes, has gutted the 1996 welfare-reform law’s work requirements. Television ads for Romney and stump speeches by his running mate, U.S. Representative Paul Ryan, promote the Obama-ruined-welfare- reform idea daily. Radio talk-show hosts and conservative bloggers refer to Obama’s call for higher taxes on the rich as a war on the productive class. Smart executives accuse Obama of being a closet socialist, siphoning off their money to give to the slackers.
To all of the above, the moocher class -- this election year’s agitprop -- is the country’s biggest problem. It’s not. By claiming that it is, Republicans do a disservice to the party and to the national debate.
....
The U.S. in fiscal 2012 will spend about $210 billion on food stamps, unemployment insurance and welfare. Add in Medicaid and the tab swells to about $485 billion. Still, it’s small beer compared with the $1.3 trillion the U.S. will spend on Social Security and Medicare alone. Include $700 billion for defense, and the moocher class’s bounty looks even smaller.
And that doesn’t account for the ample government benefits -- farm subsidies, oil and gas allowances, and other corporate welfare -- many moocher-class critics get, or the tax breaks for mortgage interest, employer-provided health insurance and charitable contributions.
The moocher-class mythologists forget that the U.S. just went through its worst recession in 75 years, and that unemployment has exceeded 8 percent for almost four years. The U.S. is on the verge of having a permanent jobless class made up largely of middle-age workers whose occupations have been destroyed because of automation and globalization.
The moocher fabulists also ignore data showing that U.S. incomes have stagnated for a decade, and that inequality has skyrocketed. The top-earning 1 percent of households now bring home about 20 percent of total income, versus about 10 percent in 1970. Recent studies conclude that upward mobility is easier in Europe than in the U.S. So much for Republican nightmares about the U.S. becoming a European-style welfare state.
The Pew Research Center reported last week that the U.S. middle class just experienced a lost decade, shrinking for the first time since World War II. Its median household income fell 4.8 percent to $69,487 in 2010 from an inflation-adjusted $72,956 in 2001. Median wealth (including retirement savings and home values, minus debt) tumbled an even greater 28 percent, to $93,150 from $129,582, largely because of the housing crash.
....
At any rate, increased federal spending under Obama isn’t the major cause of the deficit. Nor are the Bush-era tax cuts and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as Democrats believe. As a Bloomberg Government study shows, the rise in the deficit -- from an average of 1.9 percent of gross domestic product in the pre-crisis years (2005 to 2007) to 9.3 percent of GDP post- crisis (2009-2011) -- is almost entirely due to the economic decline, which drove down tax receipts and pushed up spending on unemployment, food stamps and other support programs.
Lastly, it’s incorrect to say Obama undermined welfare reform. Temporary Aid to Needy Families, as it’s formally known, is a $16.5 billion block grant to the states, only 40 percent of which goes toward benefits. In July, Obama invited states to apply for waivers that would give them greater flexibility to design programs that promote employment, while relieving them from some paperwork requirements. If granted, states would still have to move adults into jobs within two years and cap lifetime benefits (usually five years). Anyway, don’t Republicans normally applaud block grants that come with fewer federal strings?
Instead of worrying about the rise of a moocher class, Republicans would be better off thinking up ways to improve the standard of living for the next generation, and making sure the benefits of economic growth are more widely shared. That means vastly improving education and transportation, on which the private sector depends. It involves figuring out how to control health-care costs and means-testing Social Security and Medicare so the wealthy receive less and pay more. It means reconfiguring our system of national defense.
It also means a change in mindset. The party can’t cling to the one solution -- tax cuts -- that has been its cure-all for decades. Yes, we all love tax cuts, but they benefit mostly the rich. Besides, federal income taxes are at the lowest level since the 1950s.
At a time when the U.S. can borrow for 10 years at about 1.6 percent, and when 12.8 million people are unemployed (and 8 million more part-timers would prefer full-time work), we would be out of our minds not to borrow and spend to fix problems and give the economy a kick in the pants. A serious, long-term austerity diet can follow later.
Astronomy Pic of the Day
Close up of M-83:
From NASA:
Big, bright, and beautiful, spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. This cosmic close-up, a mosaic based on data from the Hubble Legacy Archive, traces dark dust and young, blue star clusters along prominent spiral arms that lend M83 its nickname, The Southern Pinwheel. Typically found near the edges of the thick dust lanes, a wealth of reddish star forming regions also suggest another popular moniker for M83, The Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. Dominated by light from older stars, the bright yellowish core of M83 lies at the upper right. The core is also bright at x-ray energies that reveal a high concentration of neutron stars and black holes left from an intense burst of star formation. In fact, M83 is a member of a group of galaxies that includes active galaxy Centaurus A. The close-up field of view spans over 25,000 light-years at the estimated distance of M83.
From NASA:
Big, bright, and beautiful, spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. This cosmic close-up, a mosaic based on data from the Hubble Legacy Archive, traces dark dust and young, blue star clusters along prominent spiral arms that lend M83 its nickname, The Southern Pinwheel. Typically found near the edges of the thick dust lanes, a wealth of reddish star forming regions also suggest another popular moniker for M83, The Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. Dominated by light from older stars, the bright yellowish core of M83 lies at the upper right. The core is also bright at x-ray energies that reveal a high concentration of neutron stars and black holes left from an intense burst of star formation. In fact, M83 is a member of a group of galaxies that includes active galaxy Centaurus A. The close-up field of view spans over 25,000 light-years at the estimated distance of M83.
Quote of the Day
Actually just read this one in an article, but I think it's worth quoting:
But no tradition is static. When a tradition stops changing, when it stops evolving, it becomes a relic, not a tradition.- David Glasner
20 August 2012
More Tax History
Obviously, if you sell property - such as stock - you will have a gain or loss, depending on whether the amount you receive for the property is more or less than what you paid for it. Generally, this rule applies whether you receive money for the property, or exchange it for other property. But there are a number of situations where you can exchange property for other property, and you don't have to recognize your gain. The most obvious is the so-called "like-kind" exchange, where you can exchange property - say real estate - for other real estate.
In my research I have learned that the earliest of these exemptions came into being in the Revenue Act of 1921 - eight years after the income tax was authorized by the 16th Amendment and enacted by Congress. The income tax soon became the most important source of revenue for the federal government, used to finance the large increase in expenditures made necessary by World War I. One of the exemptions that came into being was for like-kind exchanges, but there were also a number of exemptions for exchanges in the context of mergers, acquisitions and other corporate transactions.
So I ask you, do you think it's a coincidence that the Secretary of the Treasury at the time was banker and financier Andrew Mellon?
Nah, I'm sure that had nothing to do with it....
UPDATE: Oh, BTW, 1921 was also first time that they enacted a special reduced tax rate for capital gains. The Revenue Act of 1921 lowered the tax on regular income to 32%, and established a reduced rate for capital gains of 12.5%....I'm sure that's just a coincidence too....
In my research I have learned that the earliest of these exemptions came into being in the Revenue Act of 1921 - eight years after the income tax was authorized by the 16th Amendment and enacted by Congress. The income tax soon became the most important source of revenue for the federal government, used to finance the large increase in expenditures made necessary by World War I. One of the exemptions that came into being was for like-kind exchanges, but there were also a number of exemptions for exchanges in the context of mergers, acquisitions and other corporate transactions.
So I ask you, do you think it's a coincidence that the Secretary of the Treasury at the time was banker and financier Andrew Mellon?
Nah, I'm sure that had nothing to do with it....
UPDATE: Oh, BTW, 1921 was also first time that they enacted a special reduced tax rate for capital gains. The Revenue Act of 1921 lowered the tax on regular income to 32%, and established a reduced rate for capital gains of 12.5%....I'm sure that's just a coincidence too....
Astronomy Pic of the Day
M78:
From NASA:
M78 isn't really hiding in planet Earth's night sky. About 1,600 light-years away and nestled in the nebula rich constellation Orion, the large, bright, reflection nebula is well-known to telescopic skygazers. But this gorgeous image of M78 was selected as the winner of the Hidden Treasures 2010 astrophotography competition. Held by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the competition challenged amateur astronomers to process data from ESO's astronomical archive in search of cosmic gems. The winning entry shows off amazing details within bluish M78 (center) embraced in dark, dusty clouds, along with a smaller reflection nebula in the region, NGC 2071 (top). Yellowish and even more compact, the recently discovered, variable McNeil's Nebula is prominent in the scene below and right of center. Based on data from ESO's WFI camera and 2.2 meter telescope at La Silla, Chile, this image spans just over 0.5 degrees on the sky. That corresponds to 15 light-years at the estimated distance of M78.
From NASA:
M78 isn't really hiding in planet Earth's night sky. About 1,600 light-years away and nestled in the nebula rich constellation Orion, the large, bright, reflection nebula is well-known to telescopic skygazers. But this gorgeous image of M78 was selected as the winner of the Hidden Treasures 2010 astrophotography competition. Held by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the competition challenged amateur astronomers to process data from ESO's astronomical archive in search of cosmic gems. The winning entry shows off amazing details within bluish M78 (center) embraced in dark, dusty clouds, along with a smaller reflection nebula in the region, NGC 2071 (top). Yellowish and even more compact, the recently discovered, variable McNeil's Nebula is prominent in the scene below and right of center. Based on data from ESO's WFI camera and 2.2 meter telescope at La Silla, Chile, this image spans just over 0.5 degrees on the sky. That corresponds to 15 light-years at the estimated distance of M78.
Quote of the Day
No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.- Sir Winston Churchill
16 August 2012
So What Value Did Bain Add?
Barry Ritholtz has a post up about an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal and a book - The Romney Files by Brett Arends - regarding the performance of Bain Capital's investments while Mitt Romney was running the show. Turns out they were no great shakes:
Now maybe - just maybe - the companies listed in the S&P 500 were engaging in the same kinds of tactics that the Bains, KKRs and others engaged in. It seemed like every day during the go-go 90s we heard about a company making layoffs in the US and saw its stock rise on the news. [I always thought that this was extremely ironic when it was happening - and dangerous as well. After all, workers are also consumers, and sooner or later these were going to have an impact on the businesses of these companies - but that's a story for another day].
So maybe everyone was making their money through these tactics.
But as Barry points out, for Bain's investors the risks were significantly greater than they would have been by investing in a mutual fund, and they received no greater returns to show for it. That, indeed, is nothing to brag about....
Arends calculates thatSo Bain levered up companies, extracted huge fees, fired workers in favor of outsourcing and off-shoring labor, and generally practiced the kind of cut-throat LBO capitalism that was greatly admired at the time. And what did they earn to show for it? No more than an investor could have earned investing his money in a stock index fund.
“Bain Capital, as we’ve seen, produced real dollar-on-dollar investment returns that were, at best guess, somewhere between 20% and 40% a year. If we figure the money was typically tied up for five to seven years, it was below 30%.In other words, Bain produced all Beta, no Alpha. They used high leverage and took big risk for what was essentially market level rates of return. Any investor who listened to Vanguard’s John Bogle would have done about the same during 1984-1998 – just buy the S&P500 index, and hold it, reinvesting the dividends. The net returns would be ~20% per year — without giant fees or excessive risks necessary.
From 1984 through the end of 1998, the stock market overall produced gains of nearly 20% a year. If you had leveraged each dollar with $2 in debt at corporate interest rates, your returns would have ballooned to nearly 30% a year. If you’d been able to borrow $3 at corporate interest rates, you’d be up towards 35% a year. That’s how much money you could have made by issuing company bonds and then spending the money picking stocks out of the paper at random.
If they look pretty similar to the returns Bain Capital earned under Mitt Romney, maybe that’s not a complete coincidence.”
Now maybe - just maybe - the companies listed in the S&P 500 were engaging in the same kinds of tactics that the Bains, KKRs and others engaged in. It seemed like every day during the go-go 90s we heard about a company making layoffs in the US and saw its stock rise on the news. [I always thought that this was extremely ironic when it was happening - and dangerous as well. After all, workers are also consumers, and sooner or later these were going to have an impact on the businesses of these companies - but that's a story for another day].
So maybe everyone was making their money through these tactics.
But as Barry points out, for Bain's investors the risks were significantly greater than they would have been by investing in a mutual fund, and they received no greater returns to show for it. That, indeed, is nothing to brag about....
Astronomy Pic of the Day
Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841:
From NASA:
A mere 46 million light-years distant, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 can be found in the northern constellation of Ursa Major. This sharp view of the gorgeous island universeshows off a striking yellow nucleus and galactic disk. Dust lanes, small, pink star-forming regions, and young blue star clusters are embedded in the patchy, tightly wound spiral arms. In contrast, many other spirals exhibit grand, sweeping arms with large star-forming regions. NGC 2841 has a diameter of over 150,000 light-years, even larger than our own Milky Way, but this close-up Hubble image spans about 34,000 light-years along the galaxy's inner region. X-ray images suggest that resulting winds and stellar explosions create plumes of hot gas extending into a halo around NGC 2841.
From NASA:
A mere 46 million light-years distant, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 can be found in the northern constellation of Ursa Major. This sharp view of the gorgeous island universeshows off a striking yellow nucleus and galactic disk. Dust lanes, small, pink star-forming regions, and young blue star clusters are embedded in the patchy, tightly wound spiral arms. In contrast, many other spirals exhibit grand, sweeping arms with large star-forming regions. NGC 2841 has a diameter of over 150,000 light-years, even larger than our own Milky Way, but this close-up Hubble image spans about 34,000 light-years along the galaxy's inner region. X-ray images suggest that resulting winds and stellar explosions create plumes of hot gas extending into a halo around NGC 2841.
Quote of the Day
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain -- and most fools do.
- Dale Carnegie
PK Working Overtime
Paul Krugman reaches out from his mystery vacation location to give a primer on the Ryan budget proposals. Read it and see how much of the plan actually consists of "mystery meat."
As PK makes very clear, this really isn't even a proposal. The only thing really being proposed is to cut tax rates on the wealthy and on corporations, and to cut medicaid and medicare by vastly underfunding them, leaving the elderly and poor to fend for themselves. These steps, by themselves, do not actually reduce the deficit - in fact they increase it, according to the CBO. The deficit reduction is where the mystery meat comes in. The plan says there will be other revenue increases and spending cuts, but doesn't say how revenues will be raised and what spending will be cut.
To call this a "plan" is really a lie. But then again, would you expect anything else from the Romney campaign?
As PK makes very clear, this really isn't even a proposal. The only thing really being proposed is to cut tax rates on the wealthy and on corporations, and to cut medicaid and medicare by vastly underfunding them, leaving the elderly and poor to fend for themselves. These steps, by themselves, do not actually reduce the deficit - in fact they increase it, according to the CBO. The deficit reduction is where the mystery meat comes in. The plan says there will be other revenue increases and spending cuts, but doesn't say how revenues will be raised and what spending will be cut.
To call this a "plan" is really a lie. But then again, would you expect anything else from the Romney campaign?
15 August 2012
"Inquisitorial and Vexatious"
For work-related reasons, I am doing some research on the history of several sections of the Internal Revenue Code, which today led me to look at the Revenue Act of 1913, which is the first enactment of the income tax after the ratification of the 16th Amendment. From the Report of the Ways and Means Committee on that bill:
UPDATE:
Ah, even more interesting information. From the Ways and Means Committee Report for the Revenue Act of 1916:
The objection is sometimes offered that an income tax is inquisitorial and vexatious.Just so you were aware - people have been making this complaint for nearly a century now....
UPDATE:
Ah, even more interesting information. From the Ways and Means Committee Report for the Revenue Act of 1916:
No civilized nation collects so large a part of its revenues through consumption taxes as does the United States, and it is conceded by all that such taxes bear most heavily upon those least able to pay them....Can you imagine? Positively socialistic!
It is therefore deemed proper that, in meeting the extraordinary expenditures for the Army and Navy, our revenue system should be more evenly and equitably balanced, an a larger portion of our necessary revenues collected from the incomes and inreitances of htose deriving the most benefit and protection from the Government.
The Ryan Pick
I think both Chait and Krugman have it exactly right.
Of course, any Republican candidate was going to run by completely misrepresenting what their positions are and the facts about how our economy got so bad to begin with and why it's not getting any better. Why should the VP pick be based on any different calculus?
Of course, any Republican candidate was going to run by completely misrepresenting what their positions are and the facts about how our economy got so bad to begin with and why it's not getting any better. Why should the VP pick be based on any different calculus?
Astronomy Pic of the Day
NGC: 4911:
From NASA:
Why are there faint rings around this spiral galaxy? Possibly because the galaxy, NGC 4911, is being pulled at by its neighbors as it falls into the enormous Coma Cluster of Galaxies. If NGC 4911 ends up like most of the galaxies in the central Coma cluster, it will become a yellowish elliptical galaxy, losing not only its outer layers, but dust, gas, and its cadre of surrounding satellite galaxies as well. Currently, however, this process is just beginning. Visible in the above deep image from the Hubble Space Telescope are NGC 4911's bright nucleus, distorted spiral arms laced with dark dust, clusters of recently formed stars, unusual faint outer rings, dwarf companion galaxies, and even faint globular clusters of stars. Far in the distance many unassociated galaxies from the early universe are visible, some even through NGC 4911 itself. The Coma Cluster contains over 1,000 galaxies making it among the most massive objects known. NGC 4911 can be found to the lower left of the great cluster's center.
From NASA:
Why are there faint rings around this spiral galaxy? Possibly because the galaxy, NGC 4911, is being pulled at by its neighbors as it falls into the enormous Coma Cluster of Galaxies. If NGC 4911 ends up like most of the galaxies in the central Coma cluster, it will become a yellowish elliptical galaxy, losing not only its outer layers, but dust, gas, and its cadre of surrounding satellite galaxies as well. Currently, however, this process is just beginning. Visible in the above deep image from the Hubble Space Telescope are NGC 4911's bright nucleus, distorted spiral arms laced with dark dust, clusters of recently formed stars, unusual faint outer rings, dwarf companion galaxies, and even faint globular clusters of stars. Far in the distance many unassociated galaxies from the early universe are visible, some even through NGC 4911 itself. The Coma Cluster contains over 1,000 galaxies making it among the most massive objects known. NGC 4911 can be found to the lower left of the great cluster's center.
Quote of the Day
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.- Albert Einstein
14 August 2012
The Definition of Madness
Emptywheel's post about this youtube of Wesley Clark (whatever happened to that guy anyway?) is depressing. But what is especially depressing is the following from her post itself:
Does anyone remember how al-Qaeda go its start? My recollection is that it began with the mujahaddin that we armed in the 1980s to fight the Soviets who had invaded Afghanistan. Yes, we armed Osama Bin Laden to fight the Russians, but then when we refused to leave the Middle East he turned his attention to us.
Anybody want to bet that this arming of "al-Qaeda related rebels in Syria" is going to turn out any better?
Since that time, largely in response to the Arab Spring, we “liberated” Libya. We’re preparing to (if have not already done so) arm al-Qaeda related rebels in Syria. We’re inventing reasons to sanction a Lebanese terror-related political party. We’ve been violating sanctions to wage war in Somalia, including with drones, and have fiddled with several incarnations of government. And our Iran sanctions–which are fairly clearly about regime change–are really beginning to hurt the Iranian people.
Does anyone remember how al-Qaeda go its start? My recollection is that it began with the mujahaddin that we armed in the 1980s to fight the Soviets who had invaded Afghanistan. Yes, we armed Osama Bin Laden to fight the Russians, but then when we refused to leave the Middle East he turned his attention to us.
Anybody want to bet that this arming of "al-Qaeda related rebels in Syria" is going to turn out any better?
Astronomy Pic of the Day
The Cat's Eye Nebula:
From NASA:
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of this impressive wide-angle view. But the composite image also combines many short and long exposures to reveal the nebula's extremely faint halo. At an estimated distance of 3,000 light-years, the faint outer halo is over 5 light-years across. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a sun-like star. More recently, some planetary nebulae are found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years. Visible on the right, some 50 million light-years beyond the Cat's Eye, lies spiral galaxy NGC 6552.
From NASA:
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of this impressive wide-angle view. But the composite image also combines many short and long exposures to reveal the nebula's extremely faint halo. At an estimated distance of 3,000 light-years, the faint outer halo is over 5 light-years across. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a sun-like star. More recently, some planetary nebulae are found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years. Visible on the right, some 50 million light-years beyond the Cat's Eye, lies spiral galaxy NGC 6552.
Quote of the Day
It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics and chemistry.-H. L. Mencken
12 August 2012
Fake Divisions - Generational and Others
Avedon talks about generational differences:
The age war is heating up, and a lot of those sharp, cynical, disaffected smarties are falling for it. One of them has been in my comments for a while now, saying stupid things about how if only the Boomers would die off, things would be fine. In response to my last post, Soullite writes:
As long as you defend boomers, no sane millenial will ever listen to you.The parents of the boomers were, by and large, born in the 20th century and doing whatever they had to in order to get by; they were not the decision-makers who "handed" a better world to the boomers. That was done by the generation that preceded "the Greatest Generation", especially one man in particular named Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt was born in 1882 and handed the parents of the boomers that comfortable, enviable world. And since then, you will find few members of any generation who will say that was a bad thing, who think Social Security Insurance was a bad idea, who disagree with Roosevelt's belief in economic freedom, good education, and health care for all.
We know enough about the world their parents handed them. We've seen enough of the world they handed us.
Nobody cares what kind BS you have to spew in their defense.
Nor will you find many "millenials" who think it was a bad idea to oppose racism and support equal rights for all, or oppose stupid wars as so many of the boomers did.
For nearly four decades, now, the Elites have pauselessly campaigned to convince the public that Those Hippie Boomers ruined America, but millennials by and large share the very same values the boomers campaigned for.
Who is it who supports depressing wages and making students pay a lifetime's wages out of their own pockets just to get enough of an education to let them earn those wages? Not the boomers, who were just starting jobs or in college themselves when, to their horror, they heard their elders announce that from now on student aid would be morphed into student loans. And it was no boomer who decided that every male in their generation would have to worry about their draft classification and whether they would be sent off to kill or be maimed or die in some stupid war in a country most of them had never heard of before....
No, the horrible world millennials were "handed" is one that people born in 1900 and 1907 (especially) and 1911 and 1913 and 1924 and 1926 and 1932 and 1935 (and 1935) handed all of us. Although they have had some latter-day help from 1946 (twice), and 1961, the die was cast by the time they got there, and it may be important to note that we've never elected a president who was born in the great lump in the middle of the baby boom in the 1950s. (Almost - that is, we elected someone who was born in 1948, which is at least nearer to the '50s, but a funny thing happened, there, thanks in large part to 1924, 1930, and 1936.)
Thanks to FDR, the boomers paid for their parents' retirement through Social Security Insurance. They have already paid for their own, as well.
Don't you be up in my face telling me how much you hate the baby boomers just because you were told to hate them by a bunch of rich toffs who want to steal money from people who earned it so they can make us all their slaves.You know why they want you to hate boomers and refuse to listen to their counsel? Because boomers are the last generation that remembers.
Boomers remember that free education, Social Security Insurance, and heavy public investment in infrastructure, science, and scholarship made our country rich and gave us all the opportunity to improve ourselves and our world. And that every miserly penny pinched in public expenditure on the public has made us weaker and poorer.
The Age War is a creation of the Elites, meant to manipulate you into redirecting blame. Or, as Jcapan reminds us in comments:
I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half. - Robber baron Jay Gould
I tend to agree that generational divisions - like other divisions within our society - racial, religious, even territorial - are overblown, but continue to be fanned in an effort to divert attention from what is the real battle that is going on in our country - the one for wealth and power. The point Avedon makes about "people born in 1900 and 1907," etc., refers to the individuals who were born in each of the years cited: Fred Koch, Lewis F. Powell, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Alan Greenspan, Richard Mellon Scaife, Charles Koch, Jack Welch, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, The reference to 1948 is actually to Al Gore, who, as Avedon notes, was kept from office by Rehnquist, O'Connor and Scalia.
The recital of all of these names makes it clear that we did not get where we are by the failure of one generation to another, but by an effort of the wealthy elites of our country to turn the system to their advantage. Even those on the list who started from modest means - Clinton and Obama - have drank the Kool-Aid, largely as a result of their own successess. Clinton, of course, deserves a great deal of the blame, having turned the Democratic Party away from its emphasis on social justice and turning it into a party for the more moderate elites. It was he, we must remember, who preached that the way for the Democrats to return to power was to moderate its emphasis on social justice and make it more "business-friendly." Reagan, at least, was somewhat consistent - he always preached that government was the problem, not the solution. Clinton was deceptive, preaching the opposite while at the same time continuing the trend to dismantling the economic safety net and regulatory structure that had protected the middle class. More than anyone except perhaps Greenspan, he deserves the blame for the economic calamity that struck in 2007 and continues with no end in sight. But Obama has done little to change the dynamic. A lot of this is just the nature of the game today - politics is now a money game, and any politician that goes against the moneyed interests in the US is sure to be a loser - or at least is perceived that way. There's a part of me that hopes - but it is a faint hope - that once Obama is out from under the need to raise funds for the next election he will feel free to take on the moneyed interests that have such a stranglehold on our system right now. But I'm not holding my breath.
I will say that I have never understood how people who live under a system where the government is supposedly responsive to a majority of the people can actually reach the conclusion that "government" per se is the "problem." I mean, I understand that if you are in the minority and things aren't going your way that you might perceive that to be the case - but the real issue isn't that the system is wrong, it's that you are in the minority. I mean, I can understand the reaction of white southerners to the changes that were brought in the 1960s - it was a cultural shift of tectonic proportions. But the problem was not the system - it's that they were on the losing side of a major argument regarding the nature of our republic. Sometimes, in a government that's responsive to the majority of the people, that's going to happen.
The people who conclude that government is the problem are those who feel that the government limits, rather than enhances, their wealth and power and their ability to pursue it - those who already have wealth and power. Anyone who reads the Federalist Papers - the great rationale behind the blueprint for our system that is the Constitution - understands that the primary goal of the system our founders established was the diffusion of power, so that no segment of the country, however you want to compartmentalize it, can exercise such control over others as to diminish their freedoms.
The other notion that goes along with this is some sort of pernicious view that only the government can take away your freedoms, not private individuals and entities. But we - meaning Americans - should know better than that. Slavery was not a public institution but a private one - the treatment of a human being as the private property of another. Sure the mechanisms of government were used to enforce those "property rights," but nobody was forced to purchase a slave - that was a choice freely made by private individuals.* The ability of people to cheat, rob and even kill others in pursuit of their own private ends is just as clearly a denial of rights as anything the government can do. A government that is responsive to the people generally will act to prevent those denials from occurring. It is ironic indeed for those who would act to cheat, rob and even kill others to claim that when government limits them they are being denied their "freedom." What is really depressing is that, today, many of those whose rights are being so denied seem to agree.
But there is a large part of me that, like Avedon, really thinks that they don't agree. What is happening is that they just don't see. What they see instead is what their televisions and radios and movies and preachers are telling them to see - conflicts that have much less impact on their daily lives than the slow, nefarious denial of rights that is happening right before their eyes. I mean come on, what is really the problem that causing your taxes to go up? Is it really the unemployment benefits that are being given to people who, in a decimated economy, can't find a job? Or is it the hundred billion dollar program to built a fighter aircraft that even the Pentagon says they don't need (but which helps line the pockets of the investor class that makes money off of it)? Is it really the teachers whose job it is to educate your children and prepare them for the future? Or is it the fact that the tax rates on the most well off in our society are less than half of what they were thirty years ago? Is it really the kids on the streets protesting the lack of jobs when they graduate from college, or the billionaire mayor that uses the brute force of the police weaponized through through the spending of millions to shut them up?
No, we have definitely been undergoing a long, drawn out effort to divert attention from the issues that really matter - issues that were adequately addressed 80 years ago and led to unprecedented progress for our nation. But the solutions to those issues limited the wealth and power of those who already had it, and they didn't like it. And so we are where we are today.
I'm am actually kind of hopeful, though. More on why later. Now, I think i'll just get on my bike and go for a ride. Looks like today is going to be a beautiful day....
The recital of all of these names makes it clear that we did not get where we are by the failure of one generation to another, but by an effort of the wealthy elites of our country to turn the system to their advantage. Even those on the list who started from modest means - Clinton and Obama - have drank the Kool-Aid, largely as a result of their own successess. Clinton, of course, deserves a great deal of the blame, having turned the Democratic Party away from its emphasis on social justice and turning it into a party for the more moderate elites. It was he, we must remember, who preached that the way for the Democrats to return to power was to moderate its emphasis on social justice and make it more "business-friendly." Reagan, at least, was somewhat consistent - he always preached that government was the problem, not the solution. Clinton was deceptive, preaching the opposite while at the same time continuing the trend to dismantling the economic safety net and regulatory structure that had protected the middle class. More than anyone except perhaps Greenspan, he deserves the blame for the economic calamity that struck in 2007 and continues with no end in sight. But Obama has done little to change the dynamic. A lot of this is just the nature of the game today - politics is now a money game, and any politician that goes against the moneyed interests in the US is sure to be a loser - or at least is perceived that way. There's a part of me that hopes - but it is a faint hope - that once Obama is out from under the need to raise funds for the next election he will feel free to take on the moneyed interests that have such a stranglehold on our system right now. But I'm not holding my breath.
I will say that I have never understood how people who live under a system where the government is supposedly responsive to a majority of the people can actually reach the conclusion that "government" per se is the "problem." I mean, I understand that if you are in the minority and things aren't going your way that you might perceive that to be the case - but the real issue isn't that the system is wrong, it's that you are in the minority. I mean, I can understand the reaction of white southerners to the changes that were brought in the 1960s - it was a cultural shift of tectonic proportions. But the problem was not the system - it's that they were on the losing side of a major argument regarding the nature of our republic. Sometimes, in a government that's responsive to the majority of the people, that's going to happen.
The people who conclude that government is the problem are those who feel that the government limits, rather than enhances, their wealth and power and their ability to pursue it - those who already have wealth and power. Anyone who reads the Federalist Papers - the great rationale behind the blueprint for our system that is the Constitution - understands that the primary goal of the system our founders established was the diffusion of power, so that no segment of the country, however you want to compartmentalize it, can exercise such control over others as to diminish their freedoms.
The other notion that goes along with this is some sort of pernicious view that only the government can take away your freedoms, not private individuals and entities. But we - meaning Americans - should know better than that. Slavery was not a public institution but a private one - the treatment of a human being as the private property of another. Sure the mechanisms of government were used to enforce those "property rights," but nobody was forced to purchase a slave - that was a choice freely made by private individuals.* The ability of people to cheat, rob and even kill others in pursuit of their own private ends is just as clearly a denial of rights as anything the government can do. A government that is responsive to the people generally will act to prevent those denials from occurring. It is ironic indeed for those who would act to cheat, rob and even kill others to claim that when government limits them they are being denied their "freedom." What is really depressing is that, today, many of those whose rights are being so denied seem to agree.
But there is a large part of me that, like Avedon, really thinks that they don't agree. What is happening is that they just don't see. What they see instead is what their televisions and radios and movies and preachers are telling them to see - conflicts that have much less impact on their daily lives than the slow, nefarious denial of rights that is happening right before their eyes. I mean come on, what is really the problem that causing your taxes to go up? Is it really the unemployment benefits that are being given to people who, in a decimated economy, can't find a job? Or is it the hundred billion dollar program to built a fighter aircraft that even the Pentagon says they don't need (but which helps line the pockets of the investor class that makes money off of it)? Is it really the teachers whose job it is to educate your children and prepare them for the future? Or is it the fact that the tax rates on the most well off in our society are less than half of what they were thirty years ago? Is it really the kids on the streets protesting the lack of jobs when they graduate from college, or the billionaire mayor that uses the brute force of the police weaponized through through the spending of millions to shut them up?
No, we have definitely been undergoing a long, drawn out effort to divert attention from the issues that really matter - issues that were adequately addressed 80 years ago and led to unprecedented progress for our nation. But the solutions to those issues limited the wealth and power of those who already had it, and they didn't like it. And so we are where we are today.
I'm am actually kind of hopeful, though. More on why later. Now, I think i'll just get on my bike and go for a ride. Looks like today is going to be a beautiful day....
Quote of the Day
It's a long one, with some commentary on my part. But for some reason it seems to me that this fits with my mood. I often think about what life was like when I was growing up, the events I witnessed (mostly on television I will admit), and the general milieu of the times and why things feel so different these days. Is it just that I am older and "wiser" and that the world has always been this way? Or have things really changed in a way that makes our life seem so much more coarse, more savage than things used to be. Then I read something that makes me think, no it's not just me.
At the beginning of the week, I finished a book called “Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea” by Thomas Cahill, which is an overview of the Athenian Empire and the contributions by the Greeks - and particularly the Athenians - to the progress of civilization. This is the fourth in a series of books Cahill is producing about what he calls the “hinges of history,” periods of time where the contributions of the few had a huge impact on the forging of western civilization. All of the books in this series are fascinating and I highly recommend them.
In the final chapter Cahill sets out a speech by Pericles, the great Athenian leader who presided over Athens at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, which ultimately ended with the defeat of Athens at the hands of Sparta and the end decline of the Athenian empire. The setting for the speech is a state funeral for the dead who have fallen in battle, and it is remarkably reminiscent of the Gettysburg Address. And Cahill follows this up with a discussion of several other parallels to our time:
At the beginning of the week, I finished a book called “Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea” by Thomas Cahill, which is an overview of the Athenian Empire and the contributions by the Greeks - and particularly the Athenians - to the progress of civilization. This is the fourth in a series of books Cahill is producing about what he calls the “hinges of history,” periods of time where the contributions of the few had a huge impact on the forging of western civilization. All of the books in this series are fascinating and I highly recommend them.
In the final chapter Cahill sets out a speech by Pericles, the great Athenian leader who presided over Athens at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, which ultimately ended with the defeat of Athens at the hands of Sparta and the end decline of the Athenian empire. The setting for the speech is a state funeral for the dead who have fallen in battle, and it is remarkably reminiscent of the Gettysburg Address. And Cahill follows this up with a discussion of several other parallels to our time:
For me, at least, the most obvious later parallel is the 1961 presidential inaugural address of John F. Kennedy. America was then at the height of its power and prestige, the unembarassed leader of the free world, whose classless way of life, civil tolerance and freedom of speech were the envy of humanity. We were, or so we thought, without precedent in humanity, an open society dedicated to “the pursuit of happiness,” the opposite of the secretive Soviet Union and its dreary militarism, generous in victory, openhanded to those who sought our help. Kennedy’s cadences were as measured -- and as tough -- as those of Pericles: “:Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.” When Kennedy admitted that his was “a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out,” he exhibited Periclean modesty and balance, and there was none of the exaggeration and bombast that clangs through our current political discourse. When he told of sacrifices yet to come, like Pericles he pulled no punches. It is hard today to imagine an American president reminding individuals of their obligations to the nation as a whole - or even daring to suggest that we must give up something as trivial as our SUVs for the sake of the common good. What an incredible moment it would be if we were once more to hear a president say with a straight face, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
....
Of course, all ages and all leaders have their blind spots. The City of Freedom that Pericles lauded was full of slaves -- and of freeborn women whose lives were lived in an obscurity that Pericles’s closing reference makes all too clear. But the Athenian Empire was for Pericles and unquestioned good. The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave that Kennedy presided over was a land where dark-skinned people were relegated to a fearful obscurity that was not so far from slavery - and women, if known at all, were normally known as their husband’s wives. But America’s power was in Kennedy’s presentation always on the side of right.
One cannot fail to note how secular are the language and the overall approach of Pericles. The gods are hardly mentioned, Athenians must rely on themselves. No more does Kennedy take refuge in invocations of divinity, and only at the very end of his speech does he mention God: “Here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.” In other words, let’s stick to the world as we know it and leave God out of it. This is not a theology (or an anti-theology) but a strategy. In neither case is there a confession of atheism, just an implied acknowledgement that a politician is no oracle and has not business speaking on behalf of heaven. It was this lack of knee-jerk religiosity that prompted Harvey Cox, then a young little-known Baptist minister, to write admiringly of Kennedy in The Secular City as the ideal secular politician, who refused, in a religiously diverse society, to tart up his speeches with pious cant. “Though there can be little doubt that [Kennedy’s] Christian conscience informed many of his decisions, especially in the area of racial justice, he stalwartly declined to accept the semireligious halo that Americans, deprived of a monarch who reigns gratia dei, have often tried to attach to their chief executive.”
After the age of Pericles, as Athenian confidence dimmed, the famous confidence was all too often replaced by cynicism, modesty by cockiness, sincerity by manipulation, strength by bluster. Though the gods were more and more loudly invoked, the prayers rang hollow, the appeal to conscience turned mute, and any reference to social justice tended to be met with a knowing smirk. And though the parallels to our present day are only partial, they are vivid enough to give us pause, as God, now strangely shorn of his justice, appears to direct our every national move.
My earliest memory of a huge national "event" was the Kennedy assassination. I don't remember the event itself, but I do remember watching the funeral on television. And even then it is just smippets - the image of the riderless horse with the empty boots in the stirrups pointing backwards. It is, I guess, one of those things that a four-year old mind latches onto that is still impressed indelibly in my memory. But I do remember growing up in the sixties with an image of America such as that described by Cahill - a classless, open society moving inexorably towards greater and greater freedoms for more and more of its citizens. And I think about that idealism - replaced by the cynicism, manipulation and bluster that Cahill describes. I have my own feelings about why those feelings have changed over the years, but there is no doubt that they have, and that is very much for the worse.
10 August 2012
Why People Like Me Are Pissed....
Yves has a new post up about the Standard Chartered mess. I have been meaning to post on Standard Chartered for the last several days but, well, you know how it is.
There have been several bloggers around who have been citing Yves' yeoman work on getting to the bottom of this mess, and I concur wholeheartedly. And given that some news organizations have been scrubbing their websites of certain facts about this story - just several days after the events already trying to change history - her archive becomes even more valuable in understanding what is really going on. All of these are really helpful:
Where are the feds?
Regulatory Pig Fight
SC Threatens to Sue NY Regulator
Reuter's Runs Interference for Elite Corruption
Today's post is really important because it highlights something which I think we forget because we are talking about corporations - and huge powerful corporations at that. Yves' post has the following quote from the International Business Times:
Is it any wonder institutions are committing these crimes so brazenly?
Barry Ritholtz explains how we got to this state of affairs and says its about time someone did something about it. I wholeheartedly agree. I just hope Lawsky doesn't end up caving to pressure the way Schneiderman did...
There have been several bloggers around who have been citing Yves' yeoman work on getting to the bottom of this mess, and I concur wholeheartedly. And given that some news organizations have been scrubbing their websites of certain facts about this story - just several days after the events already trying to change history - her archive becomes even more valuable in understanding what is really going on. All of these are really helpful:
Where are the feds?
Regulatory Pig Fight
SC Threatens to Sue NY Regulator
Reuter's Runs Interference for Elite Corruption
Today's post is really important because it highlights something which I think we forget because we are talking about corporations - and huge powerful corporations at that. Yves' post has the following quote from the International Business Times:
If Standard Chartered Bank were indeed a person instead of an international financier, what kind jail time would it be facing?This is what has always bothered me about attitudes regarding this kind of rogue behavior. So much of what has been going on inside our large banking institutions can only be characterized as CRIMES. When individuals do these things they go to jail. When a big corporation does it - especially a big financial institution - they get a pittance of a fine that doesn't come close to clawing back the ill-gotten gains, let alone serve as a real punishment.
The International Business Times asked a criminal defense attorney in New York just that question. The verdict: If corporations were truly people, they would be looking at two decades or more in the slammer.
The charges against Standard Chartered, per the regulator’s filing, mainly relate to “falsifying business records with the intent to defraud examiners” and facilitating “unauthorized Iranian transactions.” If the company were an individual, “a quick glance at the alleged conduct indicates two main crimes that would likely be charged: money-laundering and enterprise corruption,” the lawyer said Tuesday.
Under New York state statutes against those two crimes, a defendant found guilty could be sentenced to a penalty of between eight-and-one-third and 25 years. The attorney noted that “it seems likely that a maximum sentence would be given because of the extent of criminality alleged in this case.” And if the judge really wanted to throw the book at them, the attorney explained, they could consider every instance where Standard Chartered Bank engaged in alleged illegal conduct, no doubt hundreds of them, as a “discrete act of criminality” rather than “one criminal transaction.”
Federal involvement would make the possible prison term even stiffer, with the appropriate federal money-laundering statute carrying a penalty of “roughly 15 to 19 years,” and a racketeering conviction “punishable by up to 20 years” in Club Fed.
Is it any wonder institutions are committing these crimes so brazenly?
Barry Ritholtz explains how we got to this state of affairs and says its about time someone did something about it. I wholeheartedly agree. I just hope Lawsky doesn't end up caving to pressure the way Schneiderman did...
09 August 2012
Astronomy Pic of the Day
Hidden Galaxy IC 342:
Similar in size to other large, bright spiral galaxies, IC 342 is a mere 7 million light-years distant in the long-necked, northern constellation Camelopardalis. A sprawling island universe, IC 342 would otherwise be a prominent galaxy in our night sky, but it is almost hidden from view behind the veil of stars, gas and dust clouds in the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Even though IC 342's light is dimmed by intervening cosmic clouds, this remarkably sharp telescopic image traces the galaxy's own obscuring dust, blue star clusters, and glowing pink star forming regions along spiral arms that Wind far from the galaxy's core. IC 342 may have undergone a recent burst of star formation activity and is close enough to have gravitationally influenced the evolution of the local group of galaxies and the Milky Way.
Quote of the Day
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it will contract.- Oliver Wendell Holmes
08 August 2012
Links
Links to some interesting stories (at least interesting to me) I've come across the last couple of days:
Head of Barclay's Anti-Fraud unit convicted of fraud.
Amanda Marcotte on Republican dog-whistles.
And Amanda again with a great illustration of what she's talking about.
Deanna Pan on the crazy things kids will learn at Louisiana schools funded through their new voucher program.
A post on Missouri's constitutional amendment that excuses students from participating in assignments that violate their religion.
And Jonathan Bernstein on real economists' responses to Romney's economic plan.
Head of Barclay's Anti-Fraud unit convicted of fraud.
Amanda Marcotte on Republican dog-whistles.
And Amanda again with a great illustration of what she's talking about.
Deanna Pan on the crazy things kids will learn at Louisiana schools funded through their new voucher program.
A post on Missouri's constitutional amendment that excuses students from participating in assignments that violate their religion.
And Jonathan Bernstein on real economists' responses to Romney's economic plan.
Astronomy Pic of the Day
Close-up, the "slightly fuzzy pinkish glow" in Orion's sword discussed in yesterday's post - the Orion Nebula:
From NASA:
The Great Nebula in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the most famous nebulas in the sky. The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars are on the right in this sharp and colorful image that includes the smaller nebula M43 near center and dusty, bluish reflection nebulae NGC 1977 and friends on the left. Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible giant molecular cloud complex, these eye-catching nebulae represent only a small fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of interstellar material. Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant planetary systems. The gorgeous skyscape spans nearly two degrees or about 45 light-years at the Orion Nebula's estimated distance of 1,500 light-years.
From NASA:
The Great Nebula in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the most famous nebulas in the sky. The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars are on the right in this sharp and colorful image that includes the smaller nebula M43 near center and dusty, bluish reflection nebulae NGC 1977 and friends on the left. Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible giant molecular cloud complex, these eye-catching nebulae represent only a small fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of interstellar material. Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant planetary systems. The gorgeous skyscape spans nearly two degrees or about 45 light-years at the Orion Nebula's estimated distance of 1,500 light-years.
Quote of the Day
In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law ... That would lead to anarchy. An individual who breaks a law that his conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Simple Answer
Susie Madrak asks:
Next question....
Are Large Settlements a Real Deterrent to Corporate Fraud?Answer: No.
Next question....
07 August 2012
Nobody Actually Cares About These Issues
Two things you should always remember about Republicans:
1. They don't actually care about federalism. States rights is only important if the state wants to adopt a policy supported by Republicans.
2. They don't actually care about a balanced budget. If a balanced budget means raising taxes - which now are at historic lows - then they are against a balanced budget. If a balanced budget means cutting military spending, a vast bulk of which is used to purchase goods and services from the private sector, they are against a balanced budget. If a balanced budget means cutting social security, medicare, and programs that support the poor and middle class, then they are for a balanced budget.
States rights and the budget deficit are red herrings.
They always have been.
1. They don't actually care about federalism. States rights is only important if the state wants to adopt a policy supported by Republicans.
2. They don't actually care about a balanced budget. If a balanced budget means raising taxes - which now are at historic lows - then they are against a balanced budget. If a balanced budget means cutting military spending, a vast bulk of which is used to purchase goods and services from the private sector, they are against a balanced budget. If a balanced budget means cutting social security, medicare, and programs that support the poor and middle class, then they are for a balanced budget.
States rights and the budget deficit are red herrings.
They always have been.
Astronomy Pic of the Day
The Constellation Orion:
From NASA:
Begirt with many a blazing star, Orion, the Hunter, is one of the most easily recognizable constellations. In this night skyscape from January 15, the hunter's stars rise in the northern hemisphere's winter sky, framed by bare trees and bounded below by terrestrial lights around Lough Eske (Lake of Fish) in County Donegal, Ireland. Red giant star Betelgeuse is striking in yellowish hues at Orion's shoulder above and left of center. Rivaling the bright red giant, Rigel, a blue supergiant star holds the opposing position near Orion's foot. Of course, the sword of Orion hangs from the hunter's three belt stars near picture center, but the middle star in the sword is not a star at all. A slightly fuzzy pinkish glow hints at its true nature, a nearby stellar nursery visible to the unaided eye known as the Orion Nebula.
From NASA:
Begirt with many a blazing star, Orion, the Hunter, is one of the most easily recognizable constellations. In this night skyscape from January 15, the hunter's stars rise in the northern hemisphere's winter sky, framed by bare trees and bounded below by terrestrial lights around Lough Eske (Lake of Fish) in County Donegal, Ireland. Red giant star Betelgeuse is striking in yellowish hues at Orion's shoulder above and left of center. Rivaling the bright red giant, Rigel, a blue supergiant star holds the opposing position near Orion's foot. Of course, the sword of Orion hangs from the hunter's three belt stars near picture center, but the middle star in the sword is not a star at all. A slightly fuzzy pinkish glow hints at its true nature, a nearby stellar nursery visible to the unaided eye known as the Orion Nebula.
Quote of the Day
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.- Plato
06 August 2012
Tax News of the Day
For whatever reason, this decision seems to have gotten very little press:
It is unfortunate, though, that we have to rely on the courts to overturn this law. Especially since it appears that the US Supreme Court will have the final word. Based on their recent track record, I don't hold out much hope that these cases will stand up when the Court reviews them.
A federal judge in Connecticut has ruled that part of a federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman and denies federal benefits to married gay couples is unconstitutional.Apparently, one of the claims was that same-sex couples should be able to file joint returns for federal income tax purposes, and that failure to permit them to do so was unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant in Hartford ruled Tuesday that the provision in the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act violates the Fifth Amendment right to equal protection.
The ruling came in the case of six married same-sex couples and a widower who sued after being denied federal benefits. The plaintiffs are from Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont.
It is unfortunate, though, that we have to rely on the courts to overturn this law. Especially since it appears that the US Supreme Court will have the final word. Based on their recent track record, I don't hold out much hope that these cases will stand up when the Court reviews them.
Making Political Protest Illegal
"We Now Have Our Smallest Government in 45 Years"
From Jordan Weissman.
Guess we should blame our dirty muslim socialist president for this.
Oh, wait...
Guess we should blame our dirty muslim socialist president for this.
Oh, wait...
Sunstein Resigns
He was Obama's "regulatory czar." The reactions?
On Friday, this came from a supporter of Obama’s views on the environment:What a rotten muslim socialist Obama must be, putting a guy like this in charge of regulatory policy....
“It’s a glorious day,” said Frank O’Donnell, of the group Clean Air Watch. “Sunstein has been a blot on the landscape.”
And from an Obama adversary:
“The Chamber has enjoyed a good working relationship with Cass Sunstein and we wish him well in his return to Harvard Law,” said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Despite its happiness with Sunstein, the agency has spent millions of dollars attacking the president's policies.
The Revolving Door
Yves takes apart a NY Times article on a new study that questions whether the revolving door between government and private business is really a problem....
The only people who think the revolving door is not a problem are those that benefit from it.
The only people who think the revolving door is not a problem are those that benefit from it.
So What Else Is New?
From the Financial Times:
h/t Yves
Four-Year Silver Probe Set to be DroppedAmazing, isn't it?
A four-year investigation into the possible manipulation of the the silver market looks increasingly likely to be dropped after US regulators failed to find enough evidence to support a legal case, according to three people familiar with the situation.
h/t Yves
Astronomy Pic of the Day
The Crescent Nebula:
From NASA:
NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This beautiful telescopic view combines a composite color image with narrow band data that isolates light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the detailed folds and filaments. NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years. The nebula's complex structures are likely the result of this strong wind interacting with material ejected in an earlier phase. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its stellar life this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Found in the nebula rich constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away.
From NASA:
NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This beautiful telescopic view combines a composite color image with narrow band data that isolates light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the detailed folds and filaments. NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years. The nebula's complex structures are likely the result of this strong wind interacting with material ejected in an earlier phase. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its stellar life this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Found in the nebula rich constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away.
Quote of the Day
No one is so foolish as to prefer war to peace: in peace children bury their fathers, while in war fathers bury their children.- Herodotus
02 August 2012
Astronomy Pic of the Day
Galaxy M81:
From NASA:
One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky and similar in size to the Milky Way, big, beautiful spiral M81 lies 11.8 million light-years away in the northern constellation Ursa Major. This deep image of the region reveals details in the bright yellow core, but at the same time follows fainter features along the galaxy's gorgeous blue spiral arms and sweeping dust lanes. It also follows the expansive, arcing feature, known as Arp's loop, that seems to rise from the galaxy's disk at the right. Studied in the 1960s, Arp's loop has been thought to be a tidal tail, material pulled out of M81 by gravitational interaction with its large neighboring galaxy M82. But a recent investigation demonstrates that much of Arp's loop likely lies within our own galaxy. The loop's colors in visible and infrared light match the colors of pervasive clouds of dust, relatively unexplored galactic cirrus only a few hundred light-years above the plane of the Milky Way. Along with the Milky Way's stars, the dust clouds lie in the foreground of this remarkable view. M81's dwarf companion galaxy, Holmberg IX, can be seen just above and left of the large spiral. On the sky, this image spans about 0.5 degrees, about the size of the Full Moon.
I'm not surprised by this at all....
David points to an study that came out a several months ago, which was reported in the Scientific American thus:
Surprised?
How Wealth Reduces CompassionIn other words, the richer you are, the more likely you are to be an asshole.
As riches grow, empathy for others seems to decline
Surprised?
Credit Where Credit Is Due
This is progress. Glad to see Christie is moving in the right direction on this one.
Quote of the Day
It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk.- Bertolt Brecht
Nothing's Going to Change
Yves Smith on the latest SEC screwup:
But the policy to defund and defang the SEC, carried out by every administration over the past 20 years? That was clearly malicious, and designed to achieve just this sort of result.
We live in a country ruled by corrupt financiers. Eventually, they will begin screwing enough people that even rich non-financiers will get pissed off enough to do something about it.
Until then, keep it in your mattress....
SEC Shows Abject Incompetence in Toxic CDO Case Against Citi StafferFor the lay reader, the issues are complicated. But the bottom line was that the SEC had a sure-fire winner and somehow managed to lose:
The verdict is in: nearly 20 years of keeping the SEC budget starved and cowed have rendered a once competent and feared agency incapable of doing more than winning cases on illegal parking, um, insider trading.
I have a raft of disgusted messages from attorneys in my inbox. This one is typical:I agree that the result in this case is more likely attributable to incompetence than actual malice on the part of the SEC staffers involved.
We might as well give up the notion that anyone can ever be held accountable by the SEC if they can’t win this case. It was a lay up and they blew it.A seasoned trial attorney remarked that the note from the jury was “just sad”. The note in question:
This verdict should not deter the S.E.C. from investigating the financial industry, to review current regulations and modify existing regulations as necessary.But it will do precisely that. Having been exposed as inept, the SEC is guaranteed to avoid another public embarrassment. So they will continue to draft claims that get good PR and settle cases. And it is a no brainer that the Obama Administration will refer to this decision as further proof that it is just too hard to pin anything on those bank executives. One has to wonder, given SEC enforcement chief Robert Khuzami’s deep involvement in the CDO business (he was general counsel of the Americans at Deutsche Bank from 2004 to 2009) and the Administration’s insistence that it’s pointless to even try to prosecute bank executives, whether this case was thrown, as opposed to merely lost. But absent evidence, never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.
Charles Ferguson and Eliot Spitzer are right. If anyone was really serious about going after bank misdeeds, the path of action would be to go after how bankers pay for drugs and prostitutes on the company dime. This would not be hard to prove and the threat of jail time would get them to sing. But it’s long been apparent that the problem is not the lack of viable courses of action, but lack of will to undermine the rule of our financial overlords.
But the policy to defund and defang the SEC, carried out by every administration over the past 20 years? That was clearly malicious, and designed to achieve just this sort of result.
We live in a country ruled by corrupt financiers. Eventually, they will begin screwing enough people that even rich non-financiers will get pissed off enough to do something about it.
Until then, keep it in your mattress....
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About Me
- John Glover
- When I first started this blog, I lived in Putnam County, NY, which has been characterized as the most conservative county in the State of New York. On the other hand, I am as liberal as they come. Since it was impossible for me to have an intelligent conversation about politics there, I decided to start this blog so I could find some outlet for my thoughts about political and social events and media coverage of those events. Now I am no longer a practicing attorney, but work as a writer on tax and legal issues. And I no longer live in Putnam County, so I guess the best explanation for the continuation of this blog is inertia. Although I must admit, it continues to provide a good outlet when the craziness of the world overwhelms me....
