Monday, October 22, 2007
Inflation Ex-Inflation
Well, perhaps I have been wrong all this time and the Fed does focus on inflation minus the actual inflation part.
heckuva job.
heckuva job.
A Very Minor Complaint In the Grand Scheme of Things
But, yes, the online ticket sales system for the Kimmel Center/Academy of music (orchestra, opera, etc...) is truly awful.
What's Your Money Market Fund Invested In?
Payment problems.
The article doesn't mention it, but many "risk-free" money market funds are invested in some of this stuff.
For all the pain in the mortgage market, investors who hold bonds backed by risky home loans have continued to receive their monthly interest payments — until now.
Collateralized debt obligations — made up of bonds backed by thousands of subprime home loans — are starting to shut off cash payments to investors in lower-rated bonds as credit-rating agencies downgrade the securities they own, according to analysts and industry executives.
Cutting off the cash flow, which is governed by rules and mathematical formulas that vary by security, is expected to accelerate in the months ahead.
The article doesn't mention it, but many "risk-free" money market funds are invested in some of this stuff.
WHEEEEEEEEE
Hold on tight.
Fortunately my exurban McMansion futures will only go up up up up!
SINGAPORE, Oct. 22 — Renewed concerns about the health of the American economy sent Asian stocks sharply lower today, and European stocks also registered declines in early trading.
Following a dramatic decline by stock prices in the United States on Friday — the 20th anniversary of the 1987 “Black Monday” stock market crash — investors in Asia sold off stocks on worries that the United States mortgage crisis would crimp demand among American consumers for Asia’s exports.
Hong Kong’s benchmark index of share prices fell by almost 3.3 percent, while in Japan the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped by more than 2.2 percent. South Korean stocks fell by 3.25 percent. Asia’s smaller markets were also hard hit: stocks in the Philippines slid by roughly 4 percent.
In Europe during early trading, London’s FTSE 100 was down 88 points, or 1.4 percent, but was trading off its lows. The German DAX stock market index was down 1.3 percent, and the Paris market had fallen by around 1.8 percent.
Fortunately my exurban McMansion futures will only go up up up up!
Morning Thread
I salute the least surprising story of the year*
Stay Classy America!
*next to Dick Cheney threatens to bomb a "four-letter nation" or as Bush would call it "France"
Kid Rock arrested for brawl at a 'Waffle House'
Stay Classy America!
*next to Dick Cheney threatens to bomb a "four-letter nation" or as Bush would call it "France"
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Trials
Nobody could have predicted that torturing the shit out of people might not be such an awesome idea.
WASHINGTON -- The FBI is quietly reconstructing the cases against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and 14 other accused Al Qaeda leaders being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, spurred in part by U.S. concerns that years of CIA interrogation have yielded evidence that is inadmissible or too controversial to present at their upcoming war crimes tribunals, government officials familiar with the probes said.
The process is an embarrassment for the Bush administration, which for years held the men incommunicado overseas and allowed the CIA to use coercive means to extract information from them that would not be admissible in a U.S. court of law -- and might not be allowed in their military commissions, some former officials and legal experts said. Even if the information from the CIA interrogations is allowed, they said, it would probably risk focusing the trials on the actions of the agency and not the accused.
...
But the CIA moved aggressively to take over the interrogations of Mohammed and other senior Al Qaeda detainees, beginning with suspected training camp coordinator Abu Zubeida, who was captured in Pakistan in 2002. Some current and former FBI officials said the spy agency began using coercive techniques such as waterboarding, or simulated drowning, in an effort to get the detainees to talk immediately about the terrorist network's plans.
CIA officials told The Times that the FBI wasn't getting crucial information about pending attacks out of Zubeida that they knew he possessed, and that their "enhanced" techniques ultimately worked better and faster. Current and former FBI officials said those CIA techniques resulted in false confessions that were obtained illegally.
By mid-2002, several former agents and senior bureau officials said, they had begun complaining that the CIA-run interrogation program amounted to torture and was going to create significant problems down the road -- particularly if the Bush administration was ever forced to allow the Al Qaeda suspects to face their accusers in court.
...
"Those guys were using techniques that we didn't even want to be in the room for," one senior federal law enforcement official said. "The CIA determined they were going to torture people, and we made the decision not to be involved."
A senior FBI official who since has retired said he also complained about the lack of usable evidence and admissible statements being gathered. "We knew there were going to be problems back then. But nobody was listening," he said. "Now they have to live with the policy that they have adopted. I don't know if anyone thought of the consequences."
You're Allowed to Speak Again
Bill Kristol's silencing spell on war critics has now worn off.
KRISTOL: They’re playing — they’re leap-frogging each other in the degrees of irresponsibility they’re willing to advocate. And I really think people are being too sort of complacent and forgiving almost of the Democrats. ‘Oh, it’s politics, of course. One of them has a non-binding resolution. The other has a cap.’ It’s all totally irresponsible. It’s just unbelievable. The president is sending over a new commander, he’s sending over troops, and the Democratic Congress, in a pseudo-binding way or non-binding way, is saying, ‘It won’t work. Forget it. You troops, you’re going over there in a pointless mission. Iraqis who might side with us, forget it, we’re going to pull the plug.’ It’s so irresponsible that they can’t be quiet for six or nine months and say the president has made a decision, we’re not going to change that decision, we’re not going to cut off funds and insist on the troops coming back, so let’s give it a chance to work. You really wonder, do they want it to work or not? I really wonder that. I hate to say this about the Democrats. They’re people I know personally and I respect some of them. Do they want it to succeed or not?
Flippity Doo Dah
Obviously not all people affected by the bad real estate market are blameless.
The local results: In the six months ending July 1 of this year alone, more than $1 billion in mortgages defaulted in Palm Beach County and along the Treasure Coast. Not every borrower, though, was seeking shelter. And not everyone was duped into an onerous deal.
"I had a guy who called me who owns 70 homes," says Stuart broker Michael Morgan. "I know a lady who owns 16. It's the room of 1,000 doughnuts. How many can you eat? Two? Three? Well, how many houses can you live in?"
At the top of the market, though, home sales were all about cash flow. In 2005, a Point Manalapan home sold for $1.52 million in April, $1.82''million in June and was back on the block in August for $2.25 million.
Dozens of local borrowers now in default loaded up on risk by taking out two mortgages simultaneously: one for 80 percent of the home price and another for the remaining 20 percent. Fifty-eight of those piggy-back loans imploded within four months.
"People do need to take personal responsibility," says Ellen Schloemer, executive vice president of the Washington-based Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer advocacy group. "But I think people relied on their mortgage professionals to get them through it, when they probably should have thought of them as a used-car salesman."
In fact, brokers are targets for some of the fiercest criticism - even from other brokers.
A World of Cab Drivers
Little Tommy Friedman, age 9:
Most people in the US don't live in a world of cabs and cab drivers, they're exotic devices as odd as the Disney monorail.
This is how scale change happens. When the Big Apple becomes the Green Apple, and 40 million tourists come through every year and take at least one hybrid cab ride, they’ll go back home and ask their leaders, “Why don’t we have hybrid cabs?”
Most people in the US don't live in a world of cabs and cab drivers, they're exotic devices as odd as the Disney monorail.
Monogram
You do realize that he's going to be putting the presidential seal, and his name, on everything he wears for the rest of his life.
Matlock's Vision of Health Care
Well, really, the Republican vision, as slobbered over by cenrtist David Broder.
We pay doctors to make these decisions for us because most of us haven't been to medical school. I know this point is simple and obvious and everyone makes it, but as I said before our elite discourse is so fucking stupid.
In this case, he is visualizing a radically different kind of medical marketplace, in which families armed with specific information about the treatment success and prices of hospitals and doctors can shop at will for the best quality and most affordable care.
We pay doctors to make these decisions for us because most of us haven't been to medical school. I know this point is simple and obvious and everyone makes it, but as I said before our elite discourse is so fucking stupid.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Document the atrocities.
ABC’s “This Week” — Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.
CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Comedian Stephen Colbert; Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian; Sally Bedell Smith, author of “For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years.”
CNN’s “Late Edition” — Reps. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich.; World Bank President Robert Zoellick; Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese parliamentarian; Ali al-Dabbagh, Iraqi government spokesman; Garry Kasparov, Russian presidential candidate.
“Fox News Sunday” — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.
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