carapace – Not your father's america

Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms

By F. William Engdahl
Global Research, April 29, 2009

If we are to believe what our trusted international media report, the world is on the brink of a global pandemic outbreak of a new deadly strain of flu, H1N1 as it has been labelled, or more popularly, Swine Flu. As the story goes, the outbreak of the deadly flu was first discovered in Mexico . According to press reports, after several days, headlines reported as many as perhaps 150 deaths in Mexico were believed caused by this virulent people-killing pig virus that has spread to humans and now is allegedly being further spread from human to human. Cases were being reported hourly from Canada to Spain and beyond. The only thing wrong with this story is that it is largely based on lies, hype and coverup of possible real causes of Mexican deaths.

One website, revealingly named Swine Flu Vaccine, reports the alarming news, ‘One out of every five residents of Mexico ‘s most populous city wore masks to protect themselves against the virus as Mexico City seems to be the epicenter of the outbreak. As many as 103 deaths have been attributed to the swine flu so far with many more feared to be on the horizon. The health department of Mexico said an additional 1,614 reported cases have been documented.’ We are told that the H1N1 ‘shares genetic material from human, avian and swine influenza viruses.’ 1

Airports around the world have installed passenger temperature scans to identify anyone with above normal body temperature as possible suspect for swine flu. Travel to Mexico has collapsed. Sales of flu vaccines, above all Tamiflu from Roche Inc., have exploded in days. People have stopped buying pork fearing certain death. The World Health Organization has declared a ‘a public health emergency of international concern,’ defined by them as ‘an occurrence or imminent threat of illness or health conditions caused by bioterrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease, or highly fatal infectious agents or toxins that pose serious risk to a significant number of people.’ 2

What are the symptoms of this purported Swine Flu? That’s not at all clear according to virologists and public health experts. They say Swine Flu symptoms are relatively general and nonspecific. ‘So many different things can cause these symptoms. it is a dilemma,’ says one doctor interviewed by CNN. ‘There is not a perfect test right now to let a doctor know that a person has the Swine Flu.’ It has been noted that most individuals with Swine Flu had an early on set of fever. Also it was common to see dizziness, body aches and vomiting in addition to the common sneezing, headache and other cold symptoms. These are symptoms so general as to say nothing.

The US Government’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta states on its official website, ‘Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses that causes regular outbreaks in pigs. People do not normally get swine flu, but human infections can and do happen. Swine flu viruses have been reported to spread from person-to-person, but in the past, this transmission was limited and not sustained beyond three people.’ Nonetheless they add, ‘CDC has determined that this swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human. However, at this time, it is not known how easily the virus spreads between people.’ 3

How many media that have grabbed on the headline ‘suspected case of Swine Flu’ in recent days bother to double check with the local health authorities to ask some basic questions? For example, the number of confirmed cases of H1N1 and their location? The number of deaths confirmed to have resulted from H1N1? Dates of both? Number of suspected cases and of suspected deaths related to the Swine Flu disease?

Some known facts

According to Biosurveillance, itself part of Veratect, a US Pentagon and Government-linked epidemic reporting center, on April 6, 2009 local health officials declared a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico.

They reported, ‘Sources characterized the event as a ‘strange’ outbreak of acute respiratory infection, which led to bronchial pneumonia in some pediatric cases. According to a local resident, symptoms included fever, severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm. Health officials recorded 400 cases that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria, which has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of the town’s population (approximately 1,800 cases) has been affected. No precise timeframe was provided, but sources reported that a local official had been seeking health assistance for the town since February.’ What they later say is ‘strange’ is not the form of the illness but the time of year as most flu cases occur in Mexico in the period October to February.

The report went on to note, ‘Residents claimed that three pediatric cases, all under two years of age, died from the outbreak. However, health officials stated that there was no direct link between the pediatric deaths and the outbreak; they stated the three fatal cases were “isolated” and “not related” to each other.’

Then, most revealingly, the aspect of the story which has been largely ignored by major media, they reported, ‘Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to “flu.” However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.’ 4

Since the dawn of American ‘agribusiness,’ a project initiated with funding by the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1950′s to turn farming into a pure profit maximization business, US pig or hog production has been transformed into a highly efficient, mass production industrialized enterprise from birth to slaughter. Pigs are caged in what are called Factory Farms, industrial concentrations which are run with the efficiency of a Dachau or Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They are all conceived by artificial insemination and once born, are regularly injected with antibiotics, not because of illnesses which abound in the hyper-crowded growing pens, but in order to make them grow and add weight faster. Turn around time to slaughter is a profit factor of highest priority. The entire operation is vertically integrated from conception to slaughter to transport distribution to supermarket.

Granjas Carroll de Mexico (GCM) happens to be such a Factory Farm concentration facility for hogs. In 2008 they produced almost one million factory hogs, 950,000 according to their own statistics. GCM is a joint venture operation owned 50% by the world’s largest pig producing industrial company, Smithfield Foods of Virginia. 5 The pigs are grown in a tiny rural area of Mexico , a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and primarily trucked across the border to supermarkets in the USA , under the Smithfields’ family of labels. Most American consumers have no idea where the meat was raised.

Now the story becomes interesting.

Manure Lagoons and other playing fields

The Times of London interviewed the mother of 4-year-old Edgar Hernandez of La Gloria in Veracruz , the location of the giant Smithfield Foods hog production facility. Their local reporter notes, ‘Edgar Hernández plays among the dogs and goats that roam through the streets, seemingly unaware that the swine flu he contracted a few weeks ago — the first known case — has almost brought his country to a standstill and put the rest of the world on alert. ‘I feel great,’ the five-year-old boy said. ‘But I had a headache and a sore throat and a fever for a while. I had to lay down in bed.”

The reporters add, ‘It was confirmed on Monday (April 27 2009-w.e.) that Edgar was the first known sufferer of swine flu, a revelation that has put La Gloria and its surrounding factory pig farms and ‘manure lagoons’ at the centre of a global race to find how this new and deadly strain of swine flu emerged.’ 6

That’s quite interesting. They speak of ‘La Gloria and its surrounding factory pig farms and ‘manure lagoons.” Presumably the manure lagoons around the LaGloria factory pig farm of Smithfield Foods are the waste dumping place for the feces and urine waste from at least 950,000 pigs a year that pass through the facility. The Smithfield ‘s Mexico joint venture, Norson, states that alone they slaughter 2,300 pigs daily. That’s a lot. It gives an idea of the volumes of pig waste involved in the concentration facility at La Gloria.

Significantly, according to the Times reporters, ‘residents of La Gloria have been complaining since March that the odour from Granjas Carroll’s pig waste was causing severe respiratory infections. They held a demonstration this month at which they carried signs of pigs crossed with an X and marked with the word peligro (danger).’ 7 There have been calls to exhume the bodies of the children who died of pneumonia so that they could be tested. The state legislature of Veracruz has demanded that Smithfield ‘s Granjas Carroll release documents about its waste-handling practices. Smithfield Foods reportedly declined to comment on the request, saying that it would ‘not respond to rumours.’ 8

A research compilation by Ed Harris reported, ‘According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to ‘flu.’ However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.’ 9 That would imply that the entire Swine Flu scare might have originated from the PR spin doctors of the world’s largest industrial pig factory farm operation, Smithfield Foods.

The Vera Cruz-based newspaper La Marcha blames Smithfield ‘s Granjos Carroll for the outbreak, highlighting inadequate treatment of massive quantities of animal waste from hog production. 10

Understandably the company is perhaps more than a bit uncomfortable with the sudden attention. The company, which supplies the McDonald’s and Subway fast-food chains, was fined $12.3 million in the United States 1997 for violating the Clean Water Act. Perhaps they are in a remote tiny Mexican rural area enjoying a relatively lax regulatory climate where they need not worry about being cited for violations of any Clean Water Act.

Pig Factory Farm Industrial Production is a classic breeder of disease and toxins but little attention is being paid to this source

Factory Farms as toxic concentrations

At the very least the driving force for giant industrial agribusiness outsourcing of facilities to third world sites such as Veracruz, Mexico has more to do with further cost reduction and lack of health and safety scrutiny than it does with improving the health and safety quality of the food end product. It has been widely documented and subject of US Congressional reports that large-scale indoor animal production facilities such as that of Granjos Carroll are notorious breeding grounds for toxic pathogens.

A recent report by the US Pew Foundation in cooperation with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health notes, ‘the method of producing food animals in the United States has changed from the extensive system of small and medium-sized farms owned by a single family to a system of large, intensive operations where the animals are housed in large numbers in enclosed structures that resemble industrial buildings more than they do a traditional barn. That change has happened primarily out of view of consumers but has come at a cost to the environment and a negative impact on public health, rural communities, and the health and well-being of the animals themselves. 11

The Pew study notes, ‘The diversified, independent, family-owned farms of 40 years ago that produced a variety of crops and a few animals are disappearing as an economic entity, replaced by much larger, and often highly leveraged, farm factories. The animals that many of these farms produce are owned by the meat packing companies from the time they are born

or hatched right through their arrival at the processing plant and from there to market.’ 12

The study emphasizes that application of ‘untreated animal waste on cropland can contribute to excessive nutrient loading, contaminate surface waters, and stimulate bacteria and algal

growth and subsequent reductions in dissolved oxygen concentrations in surface waters.’ 13

That is where the real investigation ought to begin, with the health and sanitary dangers of the industrial factory pig farms like the one at Perote in Veracruz . The media spread of panic-mongering reports of every person in the world who happens to contract ‘symptoms’ which vaguely resemble flu or even Swine Flu and the statements to date of authorities such as WHO or CDC are far from conducive to a rational scientific investigation..

Tamiflu and Rummy

In October 2005 the Pentagon ordered vaccination of all US military personnel worldwide against what it called Avian Flu, H5N1. Scare stories filled world media. Then, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced he had budgeted more than $1 billion to stockpile the vaccine, Oseltamivir sold under the name, Tamiflu. President Bush called on Congress to appropriate another $2 billion for Tamiflu stocks.

What Rumsfeld neglected to report at the time was a colossal conflict of interest. Prior to coming to Washington in January 2001, Rumsfeld had been chairman of a California pharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences. Gilead Sciences held exclusive world patent rights to Tamiflu, a drug it had developed and whose world marketing rights were sold to the Swiss pharma giant, Roche. Rumsfeld was reportedly the largest stock holder in Gilead which got 10% of every Tamiflu dose Roche sold. 14 When it leaked out, the Pentagon issued a curt statement to the effect that Secretary Rumsfeld had decided not to sell but to retain his stock in Gilead, claiming that to sell would have indicated something to hide.’ That agonizing decision won him reported added millions as the Gilead share price soared more than 700% in weeks.

Tamiflu is no mild candy to be taken lightly. It has heavy side effects. It contains matter that could have potentially deadly consequences for a person’s breathing and often reportedly leads to nausea, dizziness and other flu-like symptoms.

Since the outbreak of Swine Flu Panic (not Swine Flu but Swine Flu Panic) sales of Tamiflu as well as any and every possible drug marketed as flu related have exploded. Wall Street firms have rushed to issue ‘buy’ recommendations for the company. ‘Gimme me a shot Doc, I don’t care what it is…I don’ wanna die…’

Panic and fear of death was used by the Bush Administration skilfully to promote the Avian Flu fraud. With ominous echoes of the current Swine Flu scare, Avian Flu was traced back to huge chicken factory farms in Thailand and other parts of Asia whose products were shipped across the world. Instead of a serious investigation into the sanitary conditions of those chicken factory farms, the Bush Administration and WHO blamed ‘free-roaming chickens’ on small family farms, a move that had devastating economic consequences to the farmers whose chickens were being raised in the most sanitary natural conditions. Tyson Foods of Arkansas and CG Group of Thailand reportedly smiled all the way to the bank.

Now it remains to be seen if the Obama Administration will use the scare around so-called Swine Flu to repeat the same scenario, this time with ‘flying pigs’ instead of flying birds. Already Mexican authorities have reported that the number of deaths confirmed from so-called Swine Flu is 7 not the 150 or more bandied in the media and that most other suspected cases were ordinary flu or influenza.

(To be continued)

F. William Engdahl is author of Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation (Global Rersearch, 2007, see below) and A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order (Pluto Press). His new book, Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order (Third Millennium Press) is due out end of May. He may be contacted through his website: www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net .

Notes

1 Health Advisory, accessed in http://www.swine-flu-vaccine.info/.

2 Ibid.

3 Centers for Disease Control, Swine Influenza and You, accessed in

http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/swineflu_you.htm.

4 Biosurveillance, Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events, April 24, 2009, accessed in

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-timeline-of-events.html.

5 Smithfield Foods website, accessed in

http://www.smithfieldfoods.com/our_company/our_family/Norson.aspx.

6] Ruth Maclean in La Gloria and Chris Ayres in Mexico City , I had a headache and fever’ says boy who survived, London Times, April 28, 2009.

7] Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ed Harris, Bloggers Examine Environmental Role in Mexico Swine Flu Outbreak, April 27, 2009, accessed in

http://www.planetthoughts.org/?pg=pt/Whole&qid=2870.

10 Ibid.

11 The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm

Animal Production in America, accessed in http://www.ncifap.org/_images/PCIFAPFin.pdf.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 F. William Engdahl, Is Avian Flu another Pentagon Hoax?, GlobalResearch, October 30, 2005.

From:

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13408

==========

Swine Flu and Meat Industry

Monday, April 27, 2009

MIKE DAVIS, mdavis@ucr.edu

Davis is author of “The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu.” He just wrote the piece “The Really Dangerous Swine Wear Suits.” Davis’ other books include “City of Quartz,” “Ecology of Fear,” “In Praise of Barbarians” and “Planet of Slums.”

His most recent piece states: “The Mexican swine flu, a genetic chimera probably conceived in the fecal mire of an industrial pigsty, suddenly threatens to give the whole world a fever. The initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection already traveling at higher velocity than did the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu. …

“Given that domesticated seasonal Type-A influenzas kill as many as 1 million people each year, even a modest increment of virulence, especially if combined with high incidence, could produce carnage equivalent to a major war. …

“The mythology of bold, preemptive (and cheap) intervention against avian flu has been invaluable to the cause of rich countries, like the USA and UK, who prefer to invest in their own biological Maginot Lines rather than dramatically increasing aid to epidemic frontlines overseas, as well as to Big Pharma, which has battled Third World demands for the generic, public manufacture of critical antivirals like Roche’s Tamiflu.

“Perhaps it is not surprising that Mexico lacks both capacity and political will to monitor livestock diseases and their public health impacts, but the situation is hardly better north of the border, where surveillance is a failed patchwork of state jurisdictions and corporate livestock producers treat health regulations with the same contempt with which they deal with workers and animals.

“Similarly, a decade of urgent warnings by scientists in the field has failed to ensure the transfer of sophisticated viral assay technology to the countries in the direct path of likely pandemics. Mexico has world-famous disease experts, but it had to send swabs to a laboratory in Winnipeg (which has less than 3 percent of the population of Mexico City) in order to ID the strain’s genome. Almost a week was lost as a consequence.

“But no one was less alert than the legendary disease controllers in Atlanta. According to the Washington Post, the CDC did not learn about the outbreak until six days after the Mexican government had begun to impose emergency measures. Indeed, ‘U.S. public health officials are still largely in the dark about what’s happening in Mexico two weeks after the outbreak was recognized.’

“There should be no excuses. This is not a ‘black swan’ flapping its wings. Indeed, the central paradox of this swine flu panic is that while totally unexpected, it was accurately predicted.

“Six years ago, Science dedicated a major story (reported by the admirable Bernice Wuethrich) to evidence that ‘after years of stability, the North American swine flu virus has jumped onto an evolutionary fast track.’…

“Virologists have long believed that the intensive agricultural system of southern China — an immensely productive ecology of rice, fish, pigs and domestic and wild birds — is the principal engine of influenza mutation: both seasonal ‘drift’ and episodic genomic ‘shift.’ (More rarely there may occur a direct leap from birds to pigs and/or humans [as with H5N1 in 1997].)

“But the corporate industrialization of livestock production has broken China’s natural monopoly on influenza evolution. As many writers have pointed out, animal husbandry in recent decades has been transformed into something that more closely resembles the petrochemical industry than the happy family farm depicted in school readers.

“In 1965, for instance, there were 53 million American hogs on more than 1 million farms; today, 65 million hogs are concentrated in 65,000 facilities — half with more than 5,000 animals. This has been a transition, in essence, from old-fashioned pig pens to vast excremental hells, unprecedented in nature, containing tens, even hundreds of thousands of animals with weakened immune systems suffocating in heat and manure while exchanging pathogens at blinding velocity with their fellow inmates and pathetic progenies.”

A versions of Davis’ recent piece is available at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-mexico-health .

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

==========

Swine Flu and Sick Days

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Swine Flu and Sick Days

BARBARA GAULT, via Elisabeth Crum, crum@iwpr.org,

http://www.iwpr.org

Director of research for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Gault said today: “The Centers for Disease Control has recommended that those who are sick should stay home from work or school to avoid infecting others.

“However, analyses of Bureau of Labor Statistics and other data conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research have found that less than half of workers have paid sick days, and only one in three are able to utilize sick days to care for sick children. Workers without paid sick days lose wages if they stay home, and many workers risk losing their jobs. As a result, workers who lack paid sick time are more likely to go to work with a communicable illness, and parents who cannot stay home with a sick child are more likely to send sick children to school or day care. Workers who work in direct contact with the public, such as restaurant workers, child care workers, and hotel employees, are among the least likely to have paid sick days.

“People who go to work or school while sick may infect coworkers, customers, and classmates, resulting in even more infections. With seasonal influenza, this pattern of infection is a serious problem, costing employers and families millions of dollars a year and sometimes causing serious illness or death, especially among infants and the elderly. The deaths among young, healthy individuals in Mexico (identified as a serious cause for concern by the CDC and WHO) suggest that the swine flu has the potential to be much more costly and dangerous than typical seasonal influenza.

“The swine flu situation raises the question of the public health costs of failing to provide paid sick days. Despite the public health implications and popular support — four of five Americans think that paid sick days should be a basic labor standard — no national or state laws require that workers have paid sick days.”

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

==========

BEA News: Gross Domestic Product, 1st quarter 2009 (advance)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has issued the following news release today:

Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — decreased at an annual rate of 6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009, (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to advance estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The full text of the release on BEA’s Web site can be found at

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm

==========

Op-Ed: We Need Public Directors on TARP Bank Boards

The government’s role should be honest and transparent.

Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124061299795354487.html#printMode

By ROBERT B. REICH
MR. REICH IS PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, and a secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton.

April 25, 2009

I don’t know whether Bank of America shareholders will oust Ken Lewis from his chairmanship next week. I don’t know if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will eventually do it, either. What really worries me is I don’t know who would actually be responsible for doing the deed, or by what criteria.

When it comes to keeping top corporate executives in line we usually entrust the job to shareholders — or, as a practical matter, institutional investors that represent shareholders’ interests. When it comes to keeping top public servants in line we generally trust voters — or, as a practical matter, the elected officials who represent them. But when, as now, the public has committed large amounts of its money to particular companies in the private sector, we’re in a quandary….

At the least, when government takes an ownership stake in a company, the pubic should be represented on that companies’ board of directors in direct proportion to the size of its stake. Those public directors should be appointed by the president. In exercising their oversight function, they should seek guidance from the president and his top economic officials. And their votes on critical issues before the board — such as whether to fire Ken Lewis — should be made public.

==========

CNN’s Bash didn’t note economists’ argument that spending is necessary in recession

In a CNN.com article, Dana Bash reported that Republicans “trying to return to their small government roots” are “opposing Obama’s economic prescriptions.” But Bash did not mention that several economists say increased government spending — as opposed to a return to “small government roots” — is the necessary “economic prescription[]” during a recession.

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200904280004?lid=1025929&rid=26728566

==========

Sanofi-Aventis, Blackwater of bugs: Sanofi Aventis Invests 100 Million Euros In New Facility In Mexico to Produce Seasonal and Pandemic Influenza Vaccine

19 Mar 2009

Sanofi-aventis, announced the signing of an agreement with the Mexican authorities to build a 100 million euro facility to manufacture influenza vaccine in Mexico. The announcement was made during a ceremony attended by Felipe Calderon, [unelected] President of Mexico, and Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, who was in Mexico City for a State visit. “By building this new facility, sanofi-aventis is proud to contribute to the strengthening of Mexico’s health infrastructure and is eager to support Mexico’s exemplary commitment to public health through influenza immunization and pandemic readiness”, said Chris Viehbacher, Chief Executive Officer of sanofiaventis.

At:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/142835.php

From: CLG News

==========

Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions – Zachary Shore

We all make bad decisions. It’s part of being human. The resulting mistakes can be valuable, the story goes, because we learn from them. But do we? Historian Zachary Shore says no, not always, and he has a long list of examples to prove his point.

==========

Congressman Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk: Secession

Monday, April 27, 2009

The Ultimate States’ Right

“Last week the governor of Texas ignited a media firestorm for his remarks involving the idea of secession. He did not call for Texas to secede from the United States. He merely pointed out that the federal government was treading heavily on the sovereignty of the states and that this cannot continue indefinitely without a breaking point.”

Click here to read the full article:

http://www.house.gov/paul/index.shtml

==========

Report Gives Scope of Cybercrime

Richmond-Times-Dispatch, (04/05/2009), Iris Taylor

Cybercrime robbed consumers of $265 million in 2008, $25 million more than the previous year, according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. California logged the most consumer complaints. The center is a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. Consumers can use the center to report cybercrime. It also provides law enforcement with a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet-related crimes.The increase in complaints means not only that illegal activity has increased, but that consumers are more aware of the center, according to spokesman Craig Butterworth. One-third of the complaints received in 2008 involved nondelivered merchandise or payments. Internet auction fraud accounted for 26 percent of complaints. Other complaints involved computer fraud, check fraud, identify theft and threats.

www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/columnists/article/IRIS05_20090404-180502/249062/

==========

Borowitz Report – Obama Resignation Shocker

April 29, 2009

Obama Quits While Ahead
Prez Resigns After Hundred Days: ‘All Downhill From Here’

In a move that stunned both political allies and foes alike, President Barack Obama resigned today after serving 100 days in office, telling the White House press corps, “It’s all downhill from here.”

The reporters seemed stunned by the President’s decision in light of the fawning media coverage he received during his first 100 days, but the hyperbolic nature of that reportage, ironically, may have been the prime motivator behind Mr. Obama’s shocking move.

“Let’s face it, I’m not going to get better coverage than I have to date,” he said. “The only guy with a higher approval rating is that dude who landed the plane on the Hudson – or maybe that other dude who escaped from those pirates.”

Mr. Obama may have a point, as current polls show that the only Americans with higher approval ratings are members of his immediate family.

According to the latest University of Minnesota/Opinion Research Institute survey, Mr. Obama’s 67% approval rating is topped by First Lady Michelle Obama at 84%, with daughters Sasha and Malia and dog Bo tied at 98%.

Even the President’s little-known half-brother George Obama, who resides in Nairobi, Kenya, garnered a 73% thumbs-up in the poll.

As the press corps reeled from the news of Mr. Obama’s resignation, one White House source suggested that the First Lady may have been behind the decision: “Around Day 95 or so, Michelle was running out of wardrobe changes.”

At the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts said that he stood ready to swear in the nation’s new chief executive, whom he called “President Biden R. Joseph.”

Mr. Biden is scheduled to deliver his Inaugural address on Friday at noon and wrap it up sometime late Sunday.

THE COOLEST VIDEO CLIP ON THE NET is at www.oliviagentile.com

Upcoming Events

April 30, 2009 at 8:00PM

Andy’s Only NY Show!
Andy reviews Obama’s first 100 days with special guests Hendrik Hertzberg (The New Yorker), Jonathan Alter (Newsweek, MSNBC) and comedian Judy Gold

Location:
The 92nd Street Y, Lexington and 92nd Street
For tickets go to 92y.org

May 23, 2009 at 2:00PM

Andy in Cleveland – Free Show!
Andy performs a free stand-up show in his hometown. Meet Andy and his wife Olivia Gentile; Olivia will read from her new book, LIFE LIST, and both will sign their books afterward.

Location:
Joseph-Beth Bookstore, 24519 Cedar Road, Lyndhurst

http://www.borowitzreport.com/

==========

three thousand words

(click here to view)

Nate Beeler Washington Examiner Apr 28, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

Matt Davies: Cheesy Rider
(davies.lohudblogs.com)

Steve Sack: Credit Crunch
(img.slate.com/)

CDC Swine Influenza (Flu) Portal Follow up to previous postings on swine flu, see the CDC Swine Influenza (Flu) Portal

“…CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center to coordinate the agency’s response to this emerging health threat and yesterday the Secretary of the Department Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, declared a public health emergency in the United States. This will allow funds to be released to support the public health response. CDC’s goals during this public health emergency are to reduce transmission and illness severity, and provide information to assist health care providers, public health officials and the public in addressing the challenges posed by this newly identified influenza virus. To this end, CDC has issued a number of interim guidance documents in the past 24 hours. In addition, CDC’s Division of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is releasing one-quarter of its antiviral drugs, personal protective equipment, and respiratory protection devices to help states respond to the outbreak.”

http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/

==========

What Caused the Economic Crisis?

By Alexander Floum
Global Research, April 24, 2009
Examiner.com

Warren Buffett called them “weapons of mass destruction” in 2003.
President Bush said they had to be regulated.

So did the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the current head of the Federal reserve.

As did the G-20 group of the world’s 20 richest nations.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan – after being one of their biggest cheerleaders – now says they are dangerous.

And a Nobel prize-winning economist said they should be “blown up or burned”, and we should start fresh.

What Are They Talking About?

What are the above-listed folks talking about?

A financial instrument called “credit default swaps” (CDS for short).

CDS are like an insurance contract, where the purchaser buys “insurance” that a company won’t go out of business from a seller. If the company stays in business, the purchaser pays premiums to the seller, but if the company goes belly up, the seller has to pay the face value of the CDS “policy”.

Why are CDS so dangerous?

According to the experts, CDS were largely responsible for bringing down Bear Stearns, AIG (and see this) and other giant financial companies.

Indeed, many leading experts say that CDS were the main cause of the financial crisis. As just 3 examples:

• Newsweek called CDS “The Monster that Ate Wall Street”
• Former SEC chairman Christopher Cox said “The virtually unregulated over-the-counter market in credit-default swaps has played a significant role in the credit crisis”
• And – as mentioned above- a Nobel economist is so concerned about them that he thinks that existing CDS contracts must be “blown up or burned”

I’ll explain the reason that CDS are so dangerous in a future post (basically, they let the financial players to pretend that they had less risk, less stretched-too-thin leverage, and more stability then they really did). But for now, just keep in mind that some of the world’s top financial experts say that they are extremely dangerous. They are not the only cause of the financial crisis, but they are one of the main causes.

But At Least the Risk from CDS is Over, Right?

But at least the risks from CDS are over, right?

Not exactly . . .

Credit default swaps continue to bring down large companies, partly because they make it less likely that the companies can restructure.

And one of the main reasons that banks have been hoarding the bailout money instead of lending to consumers it because of CDS.Wall Street firms and banks have been hoarding cash. As the Financial Times wrote on October 7th:

Banks are hoarding cash in expectation of pay-outs on up to $400bn (£230bn) of defaulted credit derivatives linked to Lehman Brothers and other institutions, according to analysts and -dealers.

And as Fox News put it:

Massive positions are just starting to be unwound in the credit default swaps market as tens of billions of dollars worth of these contracts are now getting settled in the aftermath of several high-profile flops.

Banks are hoarding cash in expectation of expected payouts on anywhere from $200bn to $1 tn–no one knows the amount, adding to volatility–for defaulted credit derivatives linked to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the government’s seizure of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government’s rescue of American International Group, and the failure of Washington Mutual.

And guess where most of the AIG bailout went? Yup – to corporations which bought CDS from AIG. $13 billion dollars worth of the bailout money paid to AIG went to Goldman Sachs for CDS contracts. $40 billion dollars worth of AIG’s bailout money (and see this) went to foreign banks for CDS contracts. (Even AIG’s former chief said that the government used AIG “to funnel money to other institutions, including foreign banks”).

Unless something is done to change things, taxpayers may have to continue shelling out bailout money to keep bailing out CDS contract-holders.

Well, At Least the Regulators are Bringing CDS Under control so That They Can’t Cause Damage Indefinitely. Right?

Unfortunately, regulators have so far caved into lobbying pressure from those in the CDS industry, and have failed to take any decisive action to reign CDS in.

As Newsweek writes:

Major Wall Street players are digging in against fundamental changes. And while it clearly wants to install serious supervision, the Obama administration—along with other key authorities like the New York Fed—appears willing to stand back while Wall Street resurrects much of the ultracomplex global trading system that helped lead to the worst financial collapse since the Depression.

At issue is whether trading in credit default swaps and other derivatives—and the giant, too-big-to-fail firms that traded them—will be allowed to dominate the financial landscape again once the crisis passes. As things look now, that is likely to happen. And the firms may soon be recapitalized and have a lot more sway in Washington—all of it courtesy of their supporters in the Obama administration…

The financial industry isn’t leaving anything to chance, however. One sign of a newly assertive Wall Street emerged recently when a bevy of bailed-out firms, including Citigroup, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, formed a new lobby calling itself the Coalition for Business Finance Reform. Its goal: to stand against heavy regulation of “over-the-counter” derivatives, in other words customized contracts that are traded off an exchange…

Geithner’s new rules would allow the over-the-counter market to boom again, orchestrated by global giants that will continue to be “too big to fail” (they may have to be rescued again someday, in other words). And most of it will still occur largely out of sight of regulated exchanges…

The old culture is reasserting itself with a vengeance. All of which runs up against the advice now being dispensed by many of the experts who were most prescient about the crash and its causes—the outsiders, in other words, as opposed to the insiders who are still running the show.

Credit default swaps may continue to deepen the economic crisis and prevent a recovery – and cause future crises – unless regulators stand up to the lobbyists and take real action to reign them in.

From:

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13335

==========

Obama’s First Hundred Days and U.S. Presidential Realities

April 27, 2009
By George Friedman

U.S. presidential candidates run for office as if they would be free to act however they wish once elected. But upon election, they govern as they must. The freedom of the campaign trail contrasts sharply with the constraints of reality.

The test of a president is how effectively he bridges the gap between what he said he would do and what he finds he must do. Great presidents achieve this seamlessly, while mediocre presidents never recover from the transition. All presidents make the shift, including Obama, who spent his first hundred days on this task.

Obama won the presidency with a much smaller margin than his supporters seem to believe. Despite his wide margin in the Electoral College, more than 47 percent of voters cast ballots against him. Obama was acutely aware of this and focused on making certain not to create a massive split in the country from the outset of his term. He did this in foreign policy by keeping Robert Gates on as defense secretary, bringing in Hillary Clinton, Richard Holbrooke and George Mitchell in key roles and essentially extrapolating from the Bush foreign policy. So far, this has worked. Obama’s approval rating rests at 69 percent, which The Washington Post notes is average for presidents at the hundred-day mark.

Obama, of course, came into office in circumstances he did not anticipate when he began campaigning — namely, the financial and economic crisis that really began to bite in September 2008. Obama had no problem bridging the gap between campaign and governance with regard to this matter, as his campaign neither anticipated nor proposed strategies for the crisis — it just hit. The general pattern for dealing with the crisis was set during the Bush administration, when the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board put in place a strategy of infusing money into failing institutions to prevent what they feared would be a calamitous economic chain reaction.

Obama continued the Bush policy, though he added a stimulus package. But such a package had been discussed in the Bush administration, and it is unlikely that Sen. John McCain would have avoided creating one had he been elected. Obviously, the particular projects funded and the particular interests favored would differ between McCain and Obama, but the essential principle would not. The financial crisis would have been handled the same way — just as everything from the Third World debt crisis to the Savings and Loan crisis would have been handled the same way no matter who was president. Under either man, the vast net worth of the United States (we estimate it at about $350 trillion) would have been tapped by printing money and raising taxes, and U.S. assets would have been used to underwrite bad investments, increase consumption and build political coalitions through pork. Obama had no plan for this. Instead, he expanded upon the Bush administration solution and followed tradition.

The Reality of International Affairs

The manner in which Obama was trapped by reality is most clear with regard to international affairs. At the heart of Obama’s campaign was the idea that one of the major failures of the Bush administration was alienating the European allies of the United States. Obama argued that a more forthcoming approach to the Europeans would yield a more forthcoming response. In fact, the Europeans were no more forthcoming with Obama than they were with Bush.

Obama’s latest trip to Europe focused on two American demands and one European — primarily German — demand. Obama wanted the Germans to increase their economic stimulus plan because Germany is the largest exporter in the world. With the United States stimulating its economy, the Germans could solve their economic problem simply by increasing exports into the United States. This would limit job creation in the United States, particularly because German exports involve automobiles as well as other things, and Obama has struggled to build domestic demand for U.S. autos. Thus, he wanted the Germans to build domestic demand and not just rely on the United States to pull Germany out of recession. But the Germans refused, arguing that they could not afford a major stimulus now (when in fact they have no reason to be flexible, because the U.S. stimulus is going to help them no matter what Germany does).

Germany’s and France’s unwillingness to provide substantially more support in Afghanistan gave Obama a second disappointment. Some European troops were sent, but their numbers were few and their mission was limited to a very short period. (In some cases, the European force contribution will focus on training indigenous police officers, which will take a year or more to really have an impact.) The French and Germans essentially were as unwilling to deal with Obama as they were with Bush on this matter.

The Europeans, on the other hand, wanted a major effort by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Central European banking system, largely owned by banks from more established European countries, has reached a crisis state because of aggressive lending policies. The Germans in particular don’t want to bail out these banks; they want the IMF to do so. Put differently, they want the United States, China and Japan to help underwrite the European banking system. Obama did agree to contribute to this effort, but not nearly on the scale the Europeans wanted.

On the whole, the Europeans gave two big nos, while the Americans gave a mild yes. In substantive terms, the U.S.-European relationship is no better than it was under Bush. In terms of perception, however, the Obama administration managed a brilliant coup, shifting the focus to the changed atmosphere that prevailed at the meeting. Indeed, all parties wanted to emphasize the atmospherics, and judging from media coverage, they succeeded. The trip accordingly was perceived as a triumph.

Campaign Promises and Public Perception

This is not a trivial achievement. There are campaign promises, there is reality and there is public perception. All presidents must move from campaigning to governing; extremely skilled presidents manage the shift without appearing duplicitous. At least in the European case, Obama has managed the shift without suffering political damage. His core supporters appear prepared to support him independent of results. And that is an important foundation for effective governance.

We can see the same continuity in his treatment of Russia. When he ran for president, Obama pledged to abandon the U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) deployment in Poland amid a great show made about resetting U.S. Russia policy. On taking office, however, he encountered the reality of the Russian position, which is that Russia wants to be the pre-eminent power in the former Soviet Union. The Bush administration took the position that the United States must be free to maintain bilateral relations with any country, to include the ability to extend NATO membership to interested countries. Obama has reaffirmed this core U.S. position.

The United States has asked for Russian help in two areas. First, Washington asked for a second supply line into Afghanistan. Moscow agreed so long as no military equipment was shipped in. Second, Washington offered to withdraw its BMD system from Poland in return for help from Moscow in blocking Iran’s development of nuclear weapons and missiles. The Russians refused, understanding that the offer on BMD was not worth removing a massive thorn (i.e., Iran) from the Americans’ side.

In other words, U.S.-Russian relations are about where they were in the Bush administration, and Obama’s substantive position is not materially different from the Bush administration’s position. The BMD deal remains in place, the United States is not depending on Russian help on logistics in Afghanistan, and Washington has not backed off on the principle of NATO expansion (even if expansion is most unlikely).

In Iraq, Obama has essentially followed the reality created under the Bush administration, shifting withdrawal dates somewhat but following the Petraeus strategy there and extending it — or trying to extend it — to Afghanistan. The Pakistani problem, of course, presents the greatest challenge (as it would have for any president), and Obama is coping with it to the extent possible.

Obama’s managing of perceptions as opposed to actually making policy changes shows up most clearly in regard to Iran. Obama tried to open the door to Tehran by indicating that he was prepared to talk to the Iranians without preconditions — that is, without any prior commitment on the part of the Iranians regarding nuclear development. The Iranians reacted by rejecting the opening, essentially saying Obama’s overture was merely a gesture, not a substantial shift in American policy. The Iranians are, of course, quite correct in this. Obama fully understands that he cannot shift policy on Iran without a host of regional complications. For example, the Saudis would be enormously upset by such an opening, while the Syrians would have to re-evaluate their entire position on openings to Israel and the United States. Changing U.S. Iranian policy is hard to do. There is a reason Washington has the policy it does, and that reason extends beyond presidents and policymakers.

When we look at Obama’s substantive foreign policy, we see continuity rather than changes. Certainly, the rhetoric has changed, and that is not insignificant; atmospherics do play a role in foreign affairs. Nevertheless, when we look across the globe, we see the same configuration of relationships, the same partners, the same enemies and the same ambiguity that dominates most global relations.

Turkey and the Substantial U.S. Shift

One substantial shift has taken place, however, and that one is with Turkey. The Obama administration has made major overtures to Turkey in multiple forms, from a presidential visit to putting U.S. anti-piracy vessels under Turkish command. These are not symbolic moves. The United States needs Turkey to counterbalance Iran, protect U.S. interests in the Caucasus, help stabilize Iraq, serve as a bridge to Syria and help in Afghanistan. Obama has clearly shifted strategy here in response to changing conditions in the region.

Intriguingly, the change in U.S.-Turkish relations never surfaced as even a minor issue during the U.S. presidential campaign. It emerged after the election because of changes in the configuration of the international system. Shifts in Russian policy, the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and shifts within Turkey that allowed the country to begin its return to the international arena all came together to make this necessary, and Obama responded.

None of this is designed to denigrate Obama in the least. While many of his followers may be dismayed, and while many of his critics might be unwilling to notice, the fact is that a single concept dominated Obama’s first hundred days: continuity. In the face of the realities of his domestic political position and the U.S. strategic position, as well as the economic crisis, Obama did what he had to do, and what he had to do very much followed from what Bush did. It is fascinating that both Obama’s supporters and his critics think he has made far more changes than he really has.

Of course, this is only the first hundred days. Presidents look for room to maneuver after they do what they need to do in the short run. Some presidents use that room to pursue policies that weaken, and even destroy, their presidencies. Others find ways to enhance their position. But normally, the hardest thing a president faces is finding the space to do the things he wants to do rather than what he must do. Obama came through the first hundred days following the path laid out for him. It is only in Turkey where he made a move that he wasn’t compelled to make just now, but that had to happen at some point. It will be interesting to see how many more such moves he makes.

This report may be forwarded or republished on your website with attribution to www.stratfor.com

Please feel free to distribute this Intelligence Report to friends or repost to your Web site linking to www.stratfor.com .

==========

BEA News Release: Advanced Gross Domestic Product by Industry, 2008

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has issued the following news release today:

Downturns in manufacturing, retail trade, and finance and insurance industries were the leading contributors to the slowdown in U.S. economic growth in 2008, according to preliminary statistics on the breakout of real gross domestic product (GDP) by industry from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The full text of the release on BEA’s web site can be found at

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/industry/gdpindustry/gdpindnewsrelease.htm

==========

NPR Misinforms Listeners About Cause of Car Sale Slump

April 27, 2009

In the Morning Edition top of the hour news summary (not on web), NPR told listeners that car sales are down because of low consumer confidence. Wrong!

Car sales are down because consumers have seen $6 trillion in housing bubble wealth and have also seen around $8 trillion in stock wealth disappear. The reduced spending is the result of reduced wealth. Consumers need to rebuild their wealth, hence they are not buying things like cars.

The impact of wealth on household consumption is a well-studied economic relationship. NPR’s reporters should be familiar with the concept. This matters because happy talk will not get people to start buying cars again. The problem is much deeper.

From: Beat the Press: Dean Baker’s commentary on economic reporting

http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press

==========

EIA Special Requested Report – Impacts of a 25-Percent Renewable Electricity Standard as Proposed in the American Clean Energy and Security Act Discussion Draft

Monday, April 27, 2009
SPECIAL REPORT RELEASE

Impacts of a 25-Percent Renewable Electricity Standard as Proposed in the American Clean Energy and Security Act Discussion Draft

This report responds to requests from Chairman Edward Markey, for an analysis of a 25-percent Federal renewable electricity standard (RES). The RES proposal analyzed in this report is included in the discussion draft of broader legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA) of 2009, issued on the Energy and Commerce Committee website at the end of March 2009.

The analysis presented in this report starts from an updated version of the Annual Energy Outlook 2009 reference case that reflects the projected impacts of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), enacted in February 2009, and revised economic assumptions.

See the full report at:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/acesa/index.html

Contact:
Alan Beamon
202-586-2025

==========

EIA, the Nation’s clearinghouse for energy statistics – Today’s Gasoline Prices

Monday, April 27, 2009

RETAIL GASOLINE: (Self Service Prices per Gallon, Including Taxes) This report contains price estimates for gasoline sold in ozone non-attainment areas which require the sale of reformulated gasoline (RFG) as designated by the Environmental Protection Agency, and Conventional areas which includes both attainment areas and carbon monoxide non-attainment areas.

Mogas web site url

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/fwd/wrgp.html

==========

Other People’s Money – Nomi Prins

THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 2008/2009 HAS DEEP ROOTS. THE BANK WARS CHAPTER in OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY LAYS THEM OUT AND CALLED IT RIGHT….

Following an international banking career, Nomi Prins brings an insider’s eye to the boom economy and its scandals, uncovering the old boy networks and hot money flow between Wall Street and Global Financial partners, Corporate America, and Capitol Hill. This book explains why we got into this mess, how it will unfold….and what must happen to stop it.

==========

NEW PULSE POSTED

Monday, April 27, 2009

http://www.ornl.gov/info/news/pulse/

That’s the url to the April 27, 2009, issue of DOE Pulse. Pulse is a newsletter about accomplishments at the Department of Energy’s national laboratories. Here is some of what you’ll find in this issue:

* Berkeley: Carbon atoms’ movie

* Los Alamos: Science’s info track

* Livermore: Removing silica from water

* NETL: Methane hydrate decomposition

Feature: Sandia’s ginormous LNG fire test

Researcher profile: Idaho’s Dan Ginosar

==========

Borowitz Report – Swine Shocker

April 27, 2009

GOP Reaffirms Pro-swine Position
Palin, Rove Show Solidarity With Pigs

Responding to the furor over the Republican Party’s opposition to pandemic preparedness funding in the recent stimulus bill, GOP leaders came forward today to reaffirm the party’s pro-swine position.

“The Republican Party has traditionally been the pro-swine party,” said GOP strategist Karl Rove on Fox News. “This is a moment in our history when everyone must ask themselves: Are you with the pigs, or are you against them?”

Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) also voiced her solidarity with swine, telling reporters in Anchorage, “The only difference between a pitbull and a pig is lipstick.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), one of the staunchest opponents of pandemic preparedness spending, said that the public should ignore the “scare tactics” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and “go about their normal business with pigs.”

Rove agreed, telling Fox’s Sean Hannity, “I think it’s the pinnacle of hypocrisy that the same forces on the left who support same-sex marriage are now trying to limit our contact with pigs, which is the most normal thing in the world, and one of the most beautiful.”

THE COOLEST VIDEO ON THE INTERNET is at www.oliviagentile.com

Upcoming Events

April 30, 2009 at 8:00PM

Andy’s Only NY Show!
Andy reviews Obama’s first 100 days with special guests Hendrik Hertzberg (The New Yorker), Jonathan Alter (Newsweek, MSNBC) and comedian Judy Gold

Location:
The 92nd Street Y, Lexington and 92nd Street
For tickets go to 92y.org

May 23, 2009 at 2:00PM

Andy in Cleveland – Free Show!
Andy performs a free stand-up show in his hometown. Meet Andy and his wife Olivia Gentile; Olivia will read from her new book, LIFE LIST, and both will sign their books afterward.

Location:
Joseph-Beth Bookstore, 24519 Cedar Road, Lyndhurst

http://www.borowitzreport.com/

==========

three thousand words

(click here to view)

Paul Berge Q Syndicate Apr 28, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

Tom Tomorrow: What we talk about when we talk about torture.
(www.salon.com)

Joe Heller: M.A.D.
(www.cagle.com)

Rise of Right-Wing Extremism

By MWC NEWS
Friday, 24 April 2009

The Department of Homeland Security released a report last week that warned right-wing extremist groups are gaining new recruits by exploiting fears about the economy and the election of the nation’s first black president. We speak with Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

CONTINUE…

http://tinyurl.com/c6fwph (mwcnews.net)

==========

FBN’s Sullivan falsely claimed DHS report “nam[ed] veterans groups as possible extremist groups”

Fox Business’ Brian Sullivan falsely asserted that DHS “nam[ed] veterans groups as possible extremist groups” in a recent report on right-wing extremism. In fact, citing an FBI assessment authored during the Bush administration, the report warned of a possible resurgence among extremist groups that “will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans.”

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200904240024?lid=1021987&rid=26585116

==========

GLENN BECK: A SAVVY FRAUD WHO KNOWS JUST HOW TO PLEASE HIS AUDIENCE OF CONSERVATIVE SUCKERS

By Alexander Zaitchik, AlterNet

The faux right-wing pundit is laughing and crying in the backseat of his stretch limo, all the way to the bank.

http://tinyurl.com/cuck6r (www.alternet.org)

==========

Unemployment Predictions: Why Reporters Must Use Caution When Listening to Economists

April 27, 2009

USA Today reports that in their survey of economists, the median forecast of peak unemployment for the downturn was 9.8 percent.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-04-26-economy-survey_N.htm

The economists surveyed have consistently underestimated the severity of the downturn as the article notes in pointing out that their median estimate 3 months ago was 8.8 percent.

At this point, it is almost impossible envision a scenario where the unemployment rate does not cross 10.0 percent. Since we already know the weekly unemployment filings for the last 6 weeks, it is virtually certain that April unemployment will hit 9.0 percent. The economy is still losing jobs at a rate of close to 700,000 per month. It will not stop losing jobs overnight.

Even if the economy, lost no additional jobs between April and the end of the year, then the unemployment rate would still rise to about 9.5 percent by December. If it loses 1.6 million jobs (200,000 per month), then the unemployment rate will be 10.5 percent by December. At this point, this is probably about as optimistic a scenario as can be believed.

It is also worth noting that because the labor force is much older at present than in the early 80′s, this implies an unemployment rate that is inflicting far more pain than did the rate at the peak of 1981-82 recession.

From: The Beat the Press Weekly Roundup

http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press

==========

Concorde’s fate offers a lesson for finance

Viral Acharya, Matthew Richardson and Nouriel Roubini
Apr 19, 2009

Published in the Financial Times on April 15 2009

http://tinyurl.com/dl4jh9 (www.ft.com)

The supersonic Concorde aircraft was considered in the 20th century to be the most sophisticated airliner, flying at twice the speed of sound. Its crash in Paris on July 25 2000 destroyed this confidence. Some blamed the crash on metal fragments from another aircraft; others argued that Concorde was overweight and unbalanced. The accident led to some design modifications but in 2003 Concorde was in effect jettisoned in favour of subsonic aircraft, much slower but easier to maintain.

It is not too much of a stretch to compare the global financial system of the pre-subprime era to Concorde. It was fiercely innovative and grew at a record pace for close to two decades, only to suffer a new type of hard landing without clarity as to whether it was the fault of the system’s pilots or also of those regulating its maintenance.

While possible faults in piloting and maintenance of the financial system are many, the biggest contributor appears to be that capital allocation at large, complex financial institutions (universal banks, investment banks, insurance companies and, in some cases, even hedge funds) was broken, focusing myopically on circumventing capital requirements at the expense of long-term economic value creation.

For the current global market crisis, the primary fault lies with the pilots. These bankers and insurers paid themselves large cash bonuses by deceptively booking the income from triple A rated mortgage-backed securities as profits and ignoring their long-run risk/return trade-off.

But the regulatory maintenance cannot escape blame altogether. In fact, its cracks made the system vulnerable to pilot errors in the first place. In a world without regulation, creditors of financial institutions would curb risk and leverage by charging a higher cost of funding and designing tight contracts and covenants. But, in the world we have lived in, government guarantees (such as deposit insurance and “too-big-to-fail” policies) have been offered virtually for free and the financial risks have been socialised even as profits remain private.

For years regulation has targeted individual bank risk, when it should instead be managing systemic risk. Financial institutions will attempt to exploit government guarantees if that is in the interest of shareholders. That is what they are paid to do. So it is imperative to price the guarantees right.

Where should the regulators start to fix the system? Four changes seem paramount:

• Change the compensation and incentive structure of traders and profit centres at large, complex financial institutions to provide reserve accounts that grow (“pay a bonus”) on good performance and shrink (a “malus”) on bad performance, essentially bringing clawbacks into compensation schemes.
• Prevent obvious regulatory arbitrage and charge for socialised risks – deposit insurance, too big to fail, temporary loan guarantees and the like – with pricing schemes that reflect ­balance-sheet leverage and risk in a continual manner. This will discourage size and risk distortions in a market-orientated way – rather than by fiat – and impose higher charges in good times if they lead to bigger banks and more leverage.
• Quantify the systemic risk of large, complex financial institutions and “tax” their contributions to systemic risk through capital requirements, or deposit insurance fees, or mandatory insurance purchases from private and public sectors. The need for a systemic risk regulator who performs this role and manages the failure of these institutions is only underscored by the growing size of the few remaining operators in the financial arena.
• Enforce greater transparency of over-the-counter derivatives and off-balance-sheet transactions, using centralised clearing for standardised products such as credit default swaps and indices and keeping central registries with trade transparency for all others.

The recent meeting of the Group of 20 went some way to set the system to rights. First, there seems to be general agreement that regulators should work together on a core set of principles. Without such an agreement financial institutions will be able to cherry-pick their jurisdictions. Second, at least from our point of view, the G20 has homed in on most of the important threshold issues, especially the focus on systemic risk, opacity and compensation within the financial system.

We think the issues of implicit and explicit government guarantees (the second point above) warrant far more air-time at future G20 meetings. A solution as simple as pricing these guarantees at the appropriate market rate will help solve the problem, as higher fees for higher systemic risk and leverage will organically lead these institutions to lower their risk profiles.

Some say that the reforms being proposed are against the spirit of capitalism. We think the presence of government guarantees for systemically important institutions is a given. So ignoring them is unlikely to lead to pure capitalistic outcomes. Others say the reforms will inhibit financial innovation. We think this view also gets the issue wrong. The goal is not to have the most advanced financial system, but one that is reasonably advanced and robust. That is also what we seek in other areas of human activity. We do not use the most advanced aircraft to move millions of people around the world. We use reasonably advanced aircraft whose designs have proved to be reliable.

The global financial system may never return to its golden age. Like Concorde, it will be replaced by a somewhat slower but more stable engine that is less prone to very costly hard landings.

The authors are professors who have contributed to the recently published “Restoring Financial Stability: How to Repair a Failed System”.

Also, see “A Bird’s-Eye View” from the same authors.

==========

“Subprime Mortgage Pricing: The Impact of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender on the Cost of Borrowing,”

by Andrew Haughwout, Christopher Mayer, and Joseph Tracy

Some observers have argued that minority borrowers and neighborhoods were targeted for expensive credit in 2004-06, the peak period for subprime lending. To investigate this claim, the authors take advantage of a new data set that merges demographic information on subprime borrowers with information on the mortgages they took out. In a sample of more than 75,000 adjustable-rate mortgages, Haughwout, Mayer, and Tracy find no evidence of adverse pricing by race, ethnicity, or gender in either the initial rate or the reset margin. Indeed, if any pricing differential exists, minority borrowers appear to pay slightly lower rates, as do those borrowers in Zip codes with a larger percentage of black or Hispanic residents or a higher unemployment rate. Mortgage rates are also lower in locations that previously had higher rates of house price appreciation. These results suggest some economies of scale in subprime lending. Yet there are important caveats: the authors are unable to measure points and fees at loan origination, and the data do not indicate whether borrowers might have qualified for less expensive conforming mortgages.

Read the full report:

http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr368.html

==========

Library of Congress Daily Digest Bulletin – The Netherlands – New Stimulus Package

Friday, April 24, 2009

Subject: The Netherlands – New Stimulus Package

The Netherlands is the latest addition to the Financial Stimulus Plans: Recent Developments in Selected Countries from the Law Library of Congress.

This series of reports summarizes the recent developments in the proposal or implementation of financial and economic stimulus packages in selected foreign countries. In addition to the Netherlands, they cover the following jurisdictions: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, the Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

http://www.loc.gov/law/help/financial_stimulus_plan.php#Netherlands

==========

Oregon Legislature Join Anti-Ethanol Fight

Domestic Fuel – Holts Summit,MO,USA

The Oregon legislature now is considering five bills that would limit the use of ethanol in the state. The bills are in response to complaints about: the …

http://tinyurl.com/dhdsmw (domesticfuel.com)

Ethanol will raise cost of food programs by $900 million

By Sebastian Blanco

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has found that increased ethanol use in 2007 and 2008 led to a rise in food prices of about 10-15 percent. Looking forward, the CBO said that the federal government will have to spend up to …

http://tinyurl.com/cawg3k (www.autobloggreen.com)

CBO Report on Ethanol

From the Associated Press: “The increased use of ethanol could cost the government up to $900 million for food stamps and child nutrition programs, a congressional report says.

“Higher use of the corn-based fuel additive accounted for about 10 percent to 15 percent of the rise in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That translates into higher costs for food programs for the needy.”

The new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on ethanol has been posted on the agency website: The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions. A CBO blog post summarizes the report.

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/100xx/doc10057/04-08-Ethanol.pdf

Source: Jalonick, M.C. (10 April 2009). “Report: Ethanol raises cost of nutrition programs.” Associated Press.

Report: Ethanol raises cost of nutrition programs

By MARY CLARE JALONICK – Apr 9, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — The increased use of ethanol could cost the government up to $900 million for food stamps and child nutrition programs, a congressional report says.

Higher use of the corn-based fuel additive accounted for about 10 percent to 15 percent of the rise in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That translates into higher costs for food programs for the needy.

The CBO said other factors, such as skyrocketing energy costs, had an even greater impact than ethanol on food prices during that period. Economists there estimate that increased costs for food programs overall due to higher food prices will be about $5.3 billion in the current budget year.

Ethanol’s impact on future food prices is uncertain, the report says, because an increased supply of corn has the potential to eventually lower food prices.

Roughly one quarter of corn grown in the United States is now used to produce ethanol, and overall consumption of ethanol in the country hit a record high last year, exceeding 9 billion gallons, according to the CBO. Nearly 3 billion bushels of corn were used to produce ethanol in the United States last year — an increase of almost a billion bushels over 2007.

The demand for ethanol was one factor that increased corn prices, leading to higher animal feed and ingredient costs for farmers, ranchers and food manufacturers. Some of that cost is eventually passed on to consumers, since corn is used in so many food products.

Several of those affected groups have banded together to oppose tax breaks and federal mandates for the fuel. They said Thursday that the report shows the unintended consequences of ethanol.

“As startling as these figures are, they do not even tell the story of the toll higher food prices have taken on working families, nor the impact higher feed prices have had on farmers in animal agriculture who have seen staggering losses and job cuts and liquidation of livestock herds,” the Grocery Manufacturers Association, American Meat Institute, National Turkey Federation and National Council of Chain Restaurants said in a statement.

Supporters of ethanol disagreed, saying the report was good news.

“The report released by the Congressional Budget Office confirms what we’ve known for some time: The impact of ethanol production on food prices is minimal and that energy was the main driver in the rise of food prices,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, an ethanol industry group.

Ethanol producers asked the Environmental Protection Agency last month to increase the amount of ethanol that refiners can blend with gasoline from a maximum of 10 percent to 15 percent, which could boost the demand for ethanol by as much as 6 billion gallons a year. They said raising that cap would create thousands of new jobs.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said he believes the administration could move quickly to raise the cap to at least 12 or 13 percent, but the EPA has not yet made a final decision.

The report also looked at ethanol’s effects on greenhouse gas emissions, acknowledging that over time ethanol’s benefits over gasoline could diminish. The report says the use of ethanol reduced gasoline consumption by about 4 percent last year and reduced the gases blamed for global warming from the burning of gasoline by less than 1 percent. But the clearing of cropland and forests to produce more ethanol could more than offset those reductions.

Study looks at water usage in U.S. ethanol production

26 Apr 2009

DesMoinesRegister.com reports http://tinyurl.com/d6p5su that researchers at the University of Minnesota looked into how much water is required to make ethanol in each U.S. state and found stark differences based on the amount of irrigation needed to grow the corn. Their study found that it takes six gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol in Iowa, the largest producer of ethanol. Ethanol production in Nebraska requires 501 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol, and in California the conversion rate is 2,138-1. The study says government policies should discourage biofuel production in areas where irrigation is required to protect valuable water resources.

==========

Leaving Iraq

by Karen Kwiatkowski

It will cost more to leave Iraq than to continue to occupy it, according to the latest GAO report.

The headline from the bankrupt Washington Post yesterday read, “GAO Calls Iraq Pullout A ‘Massive,’ Costly Effort.” Many of us, weary from years of watching the American way of war and those of us personally impacted by the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, recall that the asinine Post and moronic New York Times reliably echoed the White House. An invasion of Iraq would cost us little to nothing. One vaguely remembers the term “cakewalk” and recalls the flowers and candy to be thrown at our liberating troops. In April 2003, Treasury Secretary Snow informed us that “America can afford the cost of this war, which at $74.7 billion makes up less than 1 percent of GDP.”

Newsflash! $75 billion represents nearly 2.5% of the US GDP today. And the Iraq war has cost us directly over $600 billion, and even if we stop now, its total cost will amount to nearly $3 trillion. War on the cheap it wasn’t.

Before the invasion, two administration officials cautiously tried to tell a slightly truer story about the Iraq invasion costs. Overnight, economic advisor Lawrence Lindsey and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill were sent packing. The truth that was so dangerous? The war would cost at least $200 billion, and the invasion was on the Washington agenda for years and never had a real policy debate.

When Army Chief Eric Shinseki suggested to Congress that it would take several hundred thousand troops to occupy Iraq, he too was unceremoniously marginalized. Same for Bush’s Middle East Envoy, Anthony Zinni.

What was the mainstream media response to these tentative truth-telling transients? CNN reported that the departures of Lindsey and O’Neill were “predicted,” in O’Neill’s case because “He is generally seen as not being able to get along with Republicans in Congress, as well as not having the support of Wall Street.” Hmmm. The Washington Post and New York Times strenuously reported the administration’s anger and outrage about O’Neill and Lindsey. In the case of Shinseki, a quiet man who did not seek the media limelight, seven years later CNN accused him of being too passive in making his case in 2002. Zinni was dropped from the media radar.

The new GAO report contains some excellent observations and advice for the Congress six years into the occupation. One wonders what the GAO said about the costs of the Iraq war when it started. Looking at all GAO reports on Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 (there are 182), only two occurred prior to the March 2003 invasion. These were the largely irrelevant Weapons of Mass Destruction: U.N. Confronts Significant Challenges in Implementing Sanctions against Iraq in May 2002, and Gulf War Illnesses: Similarities and Differences Among Countries in Chemical and Biological Threat Assessment and Veterans’ Health Status in January 2002. On May 15, 2003, the GAO published a report focused on Rebuilding Iraq. It was little noted, a correct response by the way, as rebuilding Iraq and Iraqi society, for Iraqis, was never really what we had in mind.

What should we take away from this latest bit of after-the-fact analysis from the GAO and the media’s sudden hovering concern about the Iraq war’s cost to taxpayers?

First, war is a racket. Not much has changed since Smedley Butler made his name in valiantly intervening on behalf of Washington, and then more valiantly denouncing the game as it is indeed played.

Second, the mainstream media functions to cheer politics, to cheer war, and to advertise the benefits of war. This arm-of-government lackey-ism desensitizes citizens to the costs of war, while increasing their sensitivity to being called traitor, disloyal, unpatriotic or doing anything that could get them mentioned in the MIAC Report.

Third, invasion of small, poorly defended, unpopular but resource-rich countries is good business for the well-connected. This mirrors war as a racket – but it’s more personal than that. AIG, even with its recent $170 billion infusion of tax dollars has nothing on the tax-eating complicity of the major defense contractors in Iraq. Phil Giraldi reports in the current issue of The American Conservative that on top of everything else, American military officers and other American officials in Iraq have created their own little bailout, skimming from the till to the tune of $125 billion.

Lastly, it will NOT cost more to leave Iraq than to stay. It’s all in the attitude. Ship the people home, auction off the facilities, have a big bonfire. It could even be fun. Abandoning the Iraqi outpost, destroying the military bases we constructed and outfitted (as we must do), concluding this chapter of the Iraq tragedy and fully accounting for the terrible waste of lives and money that it was – all this has a price. Feelings will be hurt, defensive memoirs written, taxpayers and soldiers will wonder whither the sacrifice, and Americans will increasingly feel that they cannot trust their government to make policy, go to war, or manage taxpayer resources.

This loss of faith, the evaporation of contracts (until the next gyration of the corporate state is sold to us on the cheap), the contraction of American credibility, and the incredible silent emptiness that settles when people realize that the lessons learned will never compensate for the losses sustained – well, all that is expensive.

Like the famous movie about a bridge built by prisoners, war apologists have created a fantasy of what Iraq means. Our generals, many of our soldiers, tour after tour, are invested in Iraq. What meaning will there be if all that America has created in Iraq is abandoned? As those Mesopotamian monuments to Pentagon power fall to dust, and the stories of America’s expenditures and actions in Iraq are airbrushed out of our textbooks, what will be left?

At the end of The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Colonel Nicholson somehow realizes that the work he had done – for its functionality, its perceived integrity, for the glory of British tradition – was in opposition to the real national security needs of his country. He destroys his beloved creation – and in doing so we understand that doing the right thing destroys more than just buildings and bases. It can and will destroy many cherished fantasies about who we are, and what we are about.

Screaming defenders of the Iraq project – in Congress, the media, in uniform and throughout the military-industrial complex and in the White House and in Tel Aviv – all should be disabused of their fantasies. Many Obama supporters felt that the administration would move quickly in this regard – by charging, trying and sentencing the war profiteers and the war liars.

The latest GAO report on withdrawing from Iraq makes one thing clear. We can’t simply shoot the policymakers, and throw their heaving carcasses on the detonators. Not yet, anyway.

March 27, 2009

From: http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski226.html

LRC columnist Karen Kwiatkowski, Ph.D., a retired USAF lieutenant colonel, has written on defense issues with a libertarian perspective for MilitaryWeek.com, hosted the call-in radio show American Forum, and blogs occasionally for Huffingtonpost.com and Liberty and Power.

To receive automatic announcements of new articles, click here.

mailto:karen_kwiatkowski-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

==========

Kind of Blue: Pushing the Boundaries with Miles Davis

Since it hit the airwaves half a century ago, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis has influenced the hearts and minds of jazz fans everywhere. Its songs became instant classics, and it has also converted many a nonfan to appreciate the music’s subtlety and complexity. In a new business case, HBS professor Robert D. Austin and Carl Størmer highlight the takeaways for thoughtful managers and executives from this story of creation and innovation.

Kind of Blue: Pushing Boundaries with Miles Davis
Q&A with: Robert D. Austin
Published: April 13, 2009
Author: Martha Lagace

Ask jazz fans the world over to name their favorite compilation, and chances are their response is Kind of Blue. With music that is sophisticated and sublime, spare yet complex, trumpeter and composer Miles Davis (1926-1991) reached dazzling new heights of creativity when the album was recorded in only two short sessions in 1959.

At the age of 32, Davis coaxed innovative ideas out of his players—among them greats including John Coltrane and Bill Evans—that took everyone by surprise. He also remade the industry, introducing longer, more contemplative songs like the now-classic “So What.”

Since 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Kind of Blue, it’s a good time to ask: How did he do it?

One of the answers is “radical simplicity,” according to HBS professor Robert D. Austin and Carl Størmer, founding principal of JazzCode, a consulting and entertainment firm specializing in improvisational collaboration and communication in high-performance teams.

In their case, “Miles Davis: Kind of Blue”, they reflect on the beauty of the music as well as the unusual story behind its creation. And they suggest that nonmusicians—such as managers who aim to spark and sustain innovation for competitive advantage—can learn a lot of new notes from Davis’s example.

“The album Kind of Blue was also a commercial success—the most commercially successful jazz album ever, in fact, which makes it worthy of examination in a business context,” Austin says.

Adds Størmer, “There are probably business benefits in relying on radical simplicity to free and empower employees in a similar way.”

…

Complete article at:

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6096.html

==========

Borowitz Report – Pimp Shocker

April 27, 2009

Report: Still Hard Out Here For A Pimp
Bitches Jumpin’ Ship, Talkin’ Shit Remain Problems

Three years after the Three 6 Mafia won an Oscar for their song “It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp,” a new study reveals that it indeed is still hard, if not harder, out here for a pimp.

The study, commissioned by the University of Minnesota’s Pimp Research Institute, is the result of interviews with the pimps themselves, who paint a bleak picture of the state of pimping in 2009 America.

“After looking at the pimps’ concerns and complaints, we can only come to one reasonable conclusion,” writes the University of Minnesota’s Davis Logsdon, who supervised the study. “And that is, it’s still hard out here for a pimp.”

According to the polling data, pimps cite “bitches jumpin’ ship” as the number one problem facing pimps today, with “bitches talkin’ shit” a close second.

There are also some indications that pimps have not been immune to problems in the broader economy, with large numbers of pimps complaining about increases in housing and fuel costs.

When asked, “What expenses make it hard out here for a pimp?”, 33% of the pimps surveyed named “Tryin’ to get money for the rent” while 31% cited “Cadillacs and gas money spent.”

As for the future prospects of pimps, the University of Minnesota’s Logsdon warns that it may be even harder out here for a pimp in the years to come.

“Based on the data, there is every reason to believe that the key factors making it hard out here for a pimp – in particular, bitches jumpin’ ship and bitches talkin’ shit – will continue to plague the pimping sector going forward,” he said.

THE COOLEST VIDEO CLIP ON THE NET is at www.oliviagentile.com

Upcoming Events

April 30, 2009 at 8:00PM

Andy’s Only NY Show!
Andy reviews Obama’s first 100 days with special guests Hendrik Hertzberg (The New Yorker), Jonathan Alter (Newsweek, MSNBC) and comedian Judy Gold

Location:
The 92nd Street Y, Lexington and 92nd Street
For tickets go to 92y.org

May 23, 2009 at 2:00PM

Andy in Cleveland – Free Show!
Andy performs a free stand-up show in his hometown. Meet Andy and his wife Olivia Gentile; Olivia will read from her new book, LIFE LIST, and both will sign their books afterward.

Location:
Joseph-Beth Bookstore, 24519 Cedar Road, Lyndhurst

http://www.borowitzreport.com/

==========

three thousand words

(click here to view)

Monte Wolverton Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Apr 27, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

RJ Matson: TARP MAGIC
(www.rjmatson.com)

Matt Davies: Oughta’ Be a Law
(davies.lohudblogs.com)

Rebooting Government Reform

Volume XIV No. 17- April 24, 2009

As Americans, reforming government is our birthright. The first and most successful reform effort occurred in Philadelphia in 1787 when a bunch of the founding fathers scrapped the Articles of Confederation and wrote the United States Constitution. Over the last century, Presidents have launched reform efforts fourteen times with – at best – mixed success.

So, with a new President in the Oval Office, it must be time for a new government reform initiative. Jeffrey Zients, a management consultant, has been tapped to reshape and reform government and eliminate waste. His new position will be Chief Performance Officer (CPO), although he will also wear the hat of Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

And so it begins. In the last half century plus we’ve had two Hoover Commissions (Truman and Eisenhower), the Grace Commission (Reagan), Reinventing Government (Clinton), and the President’s Management Agenda (George W. Bush) – all pursuing government reform. Interestingly, the Obama and Bush reform initiatives were led by people in the same position at OMB. That may be a good start, building on previous efforts is better than reinventing the wheel.

However, as happy as we are to see any effort to cut waste, the President’s announcement that he is charging the cabinet agencies with coming up with $100 million in cuts over the next 90 days, was underwhelming. It made us think of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies, ransoming the world for one million dollars. Don’t get us wrong, we don’t want even a penny wasted – but $100 million is less than a drop in the $3.7 trillion federal budget bucket – it’s more like a molecule. We have to think bigger.

So it’s time to reboot the reform effort. Designating a high profile point person to lead the effort is a good launching off point. But the real test will be how much authority and backing the President gives the new CPO. If Zients is viewed across government as having the full authority of the White House and is visibly backed early in the inevitable bureaucratic turf battles he stands a chance of making some difference.

Another key to his success will be building on the report card rating system devised by the previous administration. There were plenty of flaws in the Program Assessment Rating Tool, but the idea of scoring a variety of programs on how well they deliver results and improving and retooling the rating system, is a much better approach than scrapping it and starting at square one.

Finally, the CPO has to follow the Willie Sutton rule. Sutton was asked why he robbed banks. The old bank robber replied – because that’s where they keep the money. Well, to eliminate waste, you are going to get a bigger bang for your buck by looking at Defense, Agriculture, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services. And you have to think big – is our government organized logically and properly? Are there agencies that have outlived their useful life, or merely serve as corporate welfare? Do certain systems and programs actually promote waste?

A lot of ink has been spilled over many years documenting the various areas ripe for government reform – the Government Accountability Office, Congressional Budget Office, think tanks, and not to be too boastful, quite a bit from the hardworking folks at TCS. So it would be in the CPO’s interest to pick some of these oldie but goodie ideas, build off the work of previous administrations, and dive in with some new ideas. With a yawning budget deficit and debt piled to the moon, we need to get a grip fast.

Let us know what you think.

Support Taxpayers for Common Sense

Make a secure online donation: Donate Now

Contribute by mail with this Printer-Friendly Form

Going on at Taxpayer.net This Week

Bailout Inspector General Report: Tremendous Expansion in the Scope, Scale, and Complexity of TARP

Bailout Bank Bios

TCS Staff are compiling profiles of all financial institutions receiving funds under the 2008 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. See all completed bios here.

TCS in the News

TCS was cited in dozens of stories this past week Check them all out in the Headlines About TCS section of our redesigned website.

Notable Quote

“I have strongly opposed past efforts to user reconciliation…It wasn’t appropriate then. It isn’t appropriate now.”

–Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), quoted in The Hill.

the weekly wastebasket at www.taxpayer.net

http://www.taxpayer.net

==========

Global Crisis: Is Economics Rational?Do Economists Understand the Causes and Consequences of the Crisis?

By Prof. John Kozy
Global Research, April 23, 2009

Classical/neoclassical economics has consistently protected the wealth of the privileged; it has preserved the status quo. This is capitalism’s intent, and the evidence for it is overwhelming. It has impeded the improvement of the human condition for two hundred years, and unless it is scrapped, it will continue to do so. No mere change in government can stop it.

Aristotle defined human beings as rational animals, and even today, few people would openly describe themselves as irrational; yet many are. Even so, people don’t generally go around calling their decisions, choices, and expectations rational or calling what they do rational activity. Except, that is, economists! They modify sundry and diverse nouns with “rational.” In a short search of a few documents, the nouns actors, calculations, choices, decisions, expectations, firms, foundations, investors, outcomes, prices, responses, self-interest, societies, systems, and workers are all modified by “rational,” and some seem oxymoronic when so modified. For instance, how is it possible to have an irrational self-interest? And if that isn’t possible, what sense does modifying “self-interest” with “rational” make? Why economists feel the need to continually cite the rationality of classical economics is curious. Astronomers, physicists, chemists, biologists, mathematicians, engineers, and others have never felt a similar need. Physicists never speak of rational forces, rational particles, or rational mass. Chemists don’t speak of rational reactions. Mathematicians never speak of rational calculations. One begins to wonder whether economists can be likened to the proverbial errant child who almost automatically utters, “I didn’t do it!” when everyone knows that s/he did. One wonders whether they continually call themselves and economics rational because that’s the only exculpatory response they can think of when what they proclaim turns out, as it so often does, to be wrong.

But if rationality is a human attribute, it is at best a latent one. Activating it requires care and nurture. And some studies have suggested that the ability to activate it declines as people age. Anyone who has tried to teach even basic logic to college students knows that most never acquire enough facility to become even moderately proficient. Many professors who are tasked with teaching it lack the ability to construct even moderately advanced chains of valid reasoning, and for decades, the most used textbook for such courses presented a set of logical rules so deficient that even if a student mastered them all, s/he would have been unable to apply them efficiently. Furthermore the findings of psychologists who have devised experiments to measure rationality claim to have shown that few people consistently behave in rational ways. But this finding is not interesting. Who, other than economists, hasn’t known it? Even Aristotle must have known it more than two millennia ago; after all, he was familiar with the irrational claims Plato clearly exposed in his Socratic Dialogues. So the acute question is why economists don’t know it, why they persist in accepting classical economic theory?

Those psychological experiments, however, when examined carefully are difficult to interpret. Although the psychologists claim to be measuring rationality, what, if anything, is really being measured is not easily seen. For instance, Prof. Daniel Kahneman is reported to have devised this experiment:

“let’s take two groups of people and ask the first if the tallest tree in the world is taller than 300 meters. Then let’s ask them how tall the tallest tree in the world is. Then we repeat the exercise with the second group, asking them whether the tallest tree in the world is taller than 200 meters, and then how tall it is. At the end of the experiment, we find that the first group’s average answer to the second question is, around 300 meters, and the second’s is around 200 meters. Why? [Because] People tend to latch on to a certain ‘anchor”—usually one they come across by chance—instead of trying to use a more rational way to gather and process data and make economic decisions.”

[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077151.html]

But it is difficult to see how this experiment proves anything about rationality. The experiment requires the participants to merely guess, and guessing is not a rational activity. No rational participant would have even answered the initial question. S/he would have responded by asking something like, How would I know?, and the experiment would have collapsed.

But other experiments are more revealing. For instance,

“One of the more compelling studies described . . . involved trick-or-treaters. A few Halloweens ago, Ariely laid in a supply of Hershey’s Kisses and two kinds of Snickers—regular two-ounce bars and one-ounce miniatures. When the first children came to his door, he handed each of them three Kisses, then offered to make a deal. If they wanted to, the kids could trade one Kiss for a mini-Snickers or two Kisses for a full-sized bar. Almost all of them . . . opted for the two-Kiss trade. At some point, Ariely shifted the terms: kids could now trade one of their three Kisses for the larger bar or get a mini-Snickers without giving up anything. In terms of sheer chocolatiness, the trade for the larger bar was still by far the better deal. But, faced with the prospect of getting a mini-Snickers for nothing, the trick-or-treaters could no longer reckon properly. Most of them refused the trade, even though it cost them candy. Ariely speculates that behind the kids’ miscalculation was anxiety. As he puts it, “There’s no visible possibility of loss when we choose a FREE! item (it’s free).” Tellingly, when Ariely performed a similar experiment on adults, they made the same mistake. “If I were to distill one main lesson from the research described…, it is that we are all pawns in a game whose forces we largely fail to comprehend.”

[http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/02/25/080225crbo_books_kolbert]

What are the problems with this experiment? There is absolutely no evidence that any child or adult involved did any “reckoning,” and if no reckoning took place, no “miscalculation” could possibly have occurred. After all, people do make choices on impulse. So how does this experiment prove anything about rationality?

Just ask how a calculation, choice, decision, expectation, outcome, responses, or anything else can be determined to be rational. The only answer is by examining the reasoning process that led to it. But the experiment was built in a way that made any examination of any reasoning involved impossible. The description above says that when the experiment was performed on adults, “they made the same mistake,” that is, they selected the free bite-sized Snickers bar. The “mistake” was that they didn’t select the larger bar and maximize the amount of chocolate they were receiving. But what if they didn’t want to maximize the amount of chocolate? Suppose, for instance, that an adult desired more chocolate than was in the three Hershey Kisses but was also trying to lose weight and didn’t want to over indulge. Or suppose that an adult wanted more chocolate, didn’t want to eat it immediately, but instead, wanted to put it in a pocket but had no available pocket large enough in which to comfortably place the larger bar. Or again, suppose that an adult wanted more chocolate but wanted to eat it in one bite so that his hands were free for other tasks. In all three of these cases, selecting the mini-Snickers was the rational choice. The mistake made in this experiment was made by the designer, not the participants. He assumed that the only rational choice was the one that maximized the amount of chocolate obtained. But rationality cannot be determined by arbitrary definition. Rationality is an attribute of deliberative processes and nothing that does not involve a deliberative process can be called rational. Human beings do engage in thoughtless activities. When doing so, they are not engaged in rational behavior. But they also sometimes think about what they are doing. When their thinking conforms to well-known norms of logic and is based on true premises, it is rational, when it doesn’t, it is not. The thinking, not the result, is the deciding factor.

This experiment, however, is revealing, because economists do exactly what the experiment’s designer has done. Defining the maximization of the amount of chocolate is perfectly analogous to maximizing one’s income, and economists define that result as the only possibly rational one. Thus everything economists describe as rational is mere tautology. Unfortunately tautological theories, being hollow, are not rational, so neither are classical economics and the economists who advocate it.

In fact, rationality is a poorly understood concept. Consider this quotation from the Haaretz article cited above:

“Psychology today differentiates between two methods of thinking: There is the intuitive method, and there is the rational one. The intuitive method is characterized by rapid learning, and it concludes very quickly that what has happened the last three times will happen forever, again and again.”

But what is here described as the intuitive method is nothing but an example of a well-known fallacious mode of reasoning known as hasty generalization, so what is described as “two methods of thinking” amounts to nothing more than good and bad, which is hardly a remarkable observation.

In fact, none of the fifteen nouns mentioned in the first paragraph that economists modify with “rational” are rational in themselves. They can only be called rational after the deliberative processes that lead to them have been examined, but no economic theory could ever do that. And to merely assume they are rational when they lead to a predefined result is as irrational as making choices on impulse. So why do economists believe in their theory?

Once put into practice, rational people judge theories, policies, and practices by how well they satisfy the intentions which led to their implementations. Unless the intentions are known, no sound judgment can be made. For instance, some years ago the Congress enacted harsh, mandatory sentencing of criminals. What was the Congress’ intent? If the intent was to reduce crime, the policy has failed. If the intent was to merely punish criminals, it might be said to have succeeded. But what is some Congressmen intended the former and some the latter?

When we look at classical/neoclassical economics, how can it’s intent be determined? In the absence of any stated purpose, one can examine the things it does and those it doesn’t. In the two plus centuries it has been practiced, orthodox classical capitalism has not brought a growing or even a stable level of prosperity to the peoples who inhabit the countries in which it has been practiced. Spurts of apparent prosperity have been continuously destroyed by economic crashes that have over and over again ruined the lives of millions.

But what if its intent has never been the promotion of the people’s prosperity? What, if any, result has it attained consistently? Well, it has consistently protected the wealth of the privileged; it has preserved the status quo. The wealthy privileged increase their wealth in good times and in bad. The system works for the privileged just as the market works for stock brokers who make money when prices are rising and when they are falling. If this is capitalism’s intent, and the evidence for it is overwhelming, understanding the Obama administration’s, and the developed world’s, response to the current economic downturn is easy. As the meager apparent wealth that the common people acquired during the better years now disappears, as they lose their jobs and homes, the wealthy institutions and the people who manage them and created the downturn are rewarded and prevented from failing by obligating the common people to someday repaying a growing colossal national debt incurred for the sake of those privileged. None of this makes sense unless capitalism’s intention is to preserve the status quo at the people’s expense.

Of course, we’re told that a stable financial system is essential to economic prosperity. We’re told that credit must be easily acquired again, so that businesses can meet payroll and consumers can resume buying. But these claims are also irrational. Businesses properly should be capitalized by investment and products should be purchased with earnings. So why do governments claim businesses and consumption need to be financed by debt? The answer is really very simple. The wealthy increase their wealth by lending and they do it without even having to use their own money by means of the Ponzi scheme known as fractional reserve banking. And when debtors cannot meet their obligations, their assets are acquired by the wealthy at fire sale prices who then become even wealthier. This is what capitalism does; it does it consistently and spectacularly. It really can have no other purpose. Credit is good only for creditors; debtors always lose.

What is there about this that economists cannot understand? Are they absolutely irrational or complicit? Each must answer for him/herself. But the economic system they advocate is nothing but an irrational tower of Babel that is based on principles derived from simplistic, imaginary situations and assumptions about rationality that are contradicted by hundreds of years of evidence, and is devoted to the worship of Mammon which benefits only the rich. Capitalism has been very successful; it has impeded the improvement of the human condition for two hundred years, and unless it is scrapped, it will continue to do so. No mere change in government can stop it.

John Kozy is a retired professor of philosophy and logic who blogs on social, political, and economic issues. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he spent 20 years as a university professor and another 20 years working as a writer. He has published a textbook in formal logic commercially, in academic journals and a small number of commercial magazines, and has written a number of guest editorials for newspapers. His on-line pieces can be found on http://www.jkozy.com/ and he can be emailed from that site’s homepage.

From:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13320

==========

AIG Told to ‘Fess Up About Its PR

Source: Bloomberg, April 14, 2009

“House Democrats are investigating American International Group Inc.’s role in a campaign to discredit its former chairman and chief executive officer, Maurice ‘Hank’ Greenberg, in the wake of federal bailouts to the insurance company totaling $182.5 billion,” reports Bloomberg. Representative Edolphus Towns also asked AIG “to detail its relationship with public relations companies Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton,” two of AIG’s four PR firms. Towns wrote current AIG head Edward Liddy, “I would be extremely disappointed to learn that any of the billions of taxpayer dollars invested to support AIG may have been diverted to finance a public relations campaign against critics of the AIG bailout.” Before Greenberg, who was forced to retire from AIG in 2005, testified before a House committee, AIG circulated a memo to news media titled “The Greenberg Legacy.” The memo blamed Greenberg for creating the troubled AIG Financial Products unit, “in an effort to increase earnings,” and moving the company “away from its core insurance expertise into the entirely different and complex world of credit derivatives and other complicated financial products.”

==========

A Shift in Engineering Offshoring

FOCUS ON GLOBALIZATION

The transfer of R&D resources to low-wave countries may portend major changes for engineers in developed nations.

By Alan S. Brown, Associate Editor

Companies have been offshoring manufacturing for decades. Today, however, corporations are sending engineering work abroad as well, by outsourcing work to offshore vendors or assigning it to overseas divisions.

If this is a seismic change in the engineering profession, so far mechanical engineers have only felt the initial tremors. The trend is most pronounced in information technology, computing, and consumer electronics, where U.S., European, and Japanese firms have hired hundreds of thousands of programmers and engineers in China, India, and other developing nations. Computer and cellphone manufacturers increasingly outsource product design and engineering to original design manufacturers in China and Taiwan.

Many IT organizations not only outsource projects overseas, but rely on a small army of contract workers from overseas (on H1-B visas) to staff U.S. offices. Some companies require domestic IT employees to train their replacements (who will return overseas with their jobs) in order to retain severance benefits. A recent survey of 10,000 workers by the Stern and Wharton business schools found 8 percent of IT workers fired or involuntarily transferred due to offshoring.

Similar practices are not as common in mechanical engineering. Yet the trends are moving in the same direction. Companies like Caterpillar, Daimler, General Electric, General Motors, Honeywell, Siemens, Matsushita Electric, and IBM have all built massive engineering facilities offshore. Many companies also outsource engineering to offshore vendors.

Manufacturing profits helped build Shanghai’s skyline. Studies show companies that offshore manufacturing tend to offshore engineering too.

Corporations justify offshoring easily. They need local engineers to enter developing markets. They claim they cannot find enough skilled engineers at home. They want to speed up product introductions. They believe offshoring cuts costs.

There are other reasons too, some rarely enunciated. Many CEOs of public companies feel pressure from Wall Street analysts to show cost-cutting offshoring strategies. China demands technology transfer in exchange for access to its markets. Engineering must follow manufacturing abroad to achieve real efficiencies. Managers can hire four or five engineers overseas for the cost of one at home.

Offshoring is reaching critical mass in many engineering fields. Offshore engineers are bright, highly motivated, and have climbed the skill ladder rapidly. Engineering centers founded to create 3-D CAD files and adapt products for local markets are now tackling more complex projects as well as true research. Increasingly, large corporations see overseas divisions as new centers of excellence, and offshore vendors as low-cost sources of design and engineering.

This may sound familiar. After all, multinationals increasingly promote talented individuals from all over the world. Many have outsourced engineering projects for decades.

Yet many researchers believe offshoring today differs from past practices in one very important way: Many multinationals are making massive investments overseas at the expense of investments at home. This massive transfer of knowledge and capabilities overseas is depleting engineering capacity in developed nations.

This raises fundamental questions: Are multinationals transferring too much technology to potential competitors? Will fledgling engineers in developed countries become leaders if the jobs where they learn technical leadership skills are offshore? Can multinationals remain close to customers?and control project design and specification?if they outsource vital engineering capabilities?

Multinational companies often answer questions like these by affirming that offshoring enables them to reduce costs to consumers, increase market share, and use profits to create more high-paying jobs. They are, after all, not citizens of one country, but of many countries, and their job is to maximize shareholder value.

/// ELUSIVE NUMBERS

European and Japanese engineers tend to have more job protection than American engineers, and U.S. corporations are believed to be in the forefront of offshoring. But there is little hard data on engineering. In 2005, the National Academy of Engineering asked Timothy Sturgeon, a research Fellow at MIT’s Industrial Performance Center, to assess data on offshoring.

“I documented something everyone already knew. There isn’t any data on any of this stuff,” he said. “I was shocked to find how big the holes were. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis collects data on 16,000 product categories versus 17 service categories. I can find a synthetic thread twisted left, but all engineering is lumped under ‘Business, professional, and technical services.’”

Lori Kletzer, an economist at University of California, Santa Cruz, agrees. “It’s almost to the point of being ridiculous,” Kletzer said. “We’ve been a service economy for a long time, but we’re still focused on things that cross a border and require a customs form.”

In a recent study, two Rand Corp. researchers, James Hosek and Titus Galama, argued that the United States still leads the world in science and technology, accounting for 40 percent of global R&D spending. Compared with other industrialized nations, it filed 38 percent of all new patents, employed 37 percent of all researchers, and wrote 63 percent of the most highly cited research papers.

Yet Hosek and Galama cannot determine where U.S. corporations spend their R&D dollars, which amount to two-thirds of all U.S. R&D funding.

Taiwan manufactures 90 percent of the world’s laptop computers and does an increasing amount of design and engineering.

Often, information comes in illuminating bursts. A recent National Academy of Engineering report noted that employment and exports of Indian software services firms grew 30 to 40 percent annually over the past decade. And 18 of the top 20 U.S. semiconductor companies have built design centers in India, half since 2004.

Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology, notes that IBM’s Indian operations grew to 73,000 employees by the end of 2007, from 9,000 in 2003. IBM expects to reach 100,000 workers, mostly technical, by 2010. “That rivals the roughly 120,000 people IBM employs in the U.S.,” he noted.

Hira points to a 2007 survey of 248 American and European R&D managers undertaken for the National Academies’ Government University Industry Research Roundtable. The managers expected R&D employment to grow in India and China. More thought it would decline than grow in the United States. Most managers said they planned to keep emerging technologies at home while offshoring familiar science.

To understand offshoring better, Leonard Lynn, a professor of management policy at Case Western Reserve University, and Hal Salzman of the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, turned detective. They interviewed more than 200 engineers and managers at 41 multinational companies and eight smaller firms at 67 sites in 14 countries. They covered 23 electrical or electronics sites, 20 auto or aerospace facilities, 19 information technology offices, and five medical or pharmaceutical centers.

“Based on our case studies, we are concerned about U.S. firms taking their market leadership for granted while undercutting their engineering infrastructure,” Lynn said.

Lynn is skeptical of many offshoring practices and assumptions. He said that, in once case, a multinational company’s division specializing in large administrative software systems announced plans to develop new software. When financial analysts criticized it for not having a cost-cutting offshoring strategy, senior management decided to outsource a percentage of the business. “It was not so much a strategy as a quota,” Lynn said.

The company, which Lynn calls ALL-IT to protect its identity, began outsourcing more of the project while downsizing U.S. staff. It had planned to keep core development in the United States. Yet as technical hurdles arose, the company no longer had the U.S. programmers to tackle them. It had to send more work overseas. By 2006, the company’s U.S. programmers were maintaining legacy systems while its Indian center was creating next-generation software.

The company, a systems integrator, remained close to its customers. Yet it often brought in staff from Indian contractors to help solve customer problems. “It was becoming apparent to customers where the real expertise lies,” Lynn said. ALL-IT’s managers told Lynn that they learned systems integration by moving up the ranks, but those jobs were being outsourced.

According to Lynn, “If you neglect the infrastructure back home, you lose capabilities. If you don’t have managers who worked their way through the entire system, then offshore engineers have to take over more leadership roles.”

Lynn and Salzman also studied a heavy electrical equipment manufacturer and a power systems company, which did a better job of safeguarding core technology. Both companies tapped Chinese or Indian nationals in top engineering management to lead their ventures overseas. The facilities started with limited agendas, like supporting a local factory or doing enough research to justify Chinese government contracts. Over time, though, their performance and the relationship of their managers with executives at home enabled them to expand their operations.

/// VALUE CHAINS

For many companies, offshoring engineering is an extension of outsourcing, a business model that calls for companies to concentrate on core businesses and contract peripheral projects to vendors. Companies that have prospered under this model often control the point where value is added to a product, often through engineering.

Take, for example, Apple. Its ability to develop proprietary technologies makes it a winner, said Kenneth Kraemer, the former director of the Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations at the University of California, Irvine. He estimates that Apple captures approximately 30 to 35 percent of the value of each iPod it sells. Its U.S. and Japanese vendors, which supply high-tech components, receive most of the rest. China, which assembles the iPod, earns less than 5 percent.

Kraemer estimates that the iPod created 40,000 jobs. Only 12,000 to 14,000 jobs are in the United States, roughly half in engineering or management. Yet U.S. workers earn 2.5 times more than non-U.S. workers. “In Asia, the jobs are mostly very low cost labor, with relatively few engineering and management positions,” Kraemer said.

Even in a commodity business like PCs, some companies have proprietary advantages. Intel, which makes processors, and Microsoft, which develops operating systems, profit more than the PC makers themselves, Kraemer said.

…

Complete article at:

http://memagazine.asme.org/articles/2009/March/Shift_Offshoring.cfm

==========

GET JACKED! – Nomi Prins

By using taxpayer money, now and in the future, asa piggy bank for Wall Street, the “conservative” economic agenda is anything but. It affects your wallet—and not just your money. Linking each card to shortsighted policies, blunders, and scandals, Nomi shows how skewed national priorities have diminished America, but not the American spirit. She recounts her travels across America; the people she met and stories they shared.

JACKED

How “Conservatives” are Picking your Pocket (whether you voted for them or not)

==========

Stiglitz: Too Big to Fail or Too Big to Save?

Below a copy of Joe Stiglitz’ testimony before the Joint Economic Committee yesterday. A favorite passage of mine:

We should recognize that there is no free lunch, and the basic laws of conservation of matter apply in economics as they do in physics. There have been real losses, as loans were made on the basis of a housing bubble. The bubble has now broken, and no expressions of…

Read the whole entry

http://tinyurl.com/cf9snc (optionarmageddon.ml-implode.com)

House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street by William D. Cohan

==========

USGAO – Recovery Act: As Initial Implementation Unfolds in States and Localities, Continued Attention to Accountability Issues Is Essential.

GAO-09-580, April 23.

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-580

Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09580high.pdf

==========

Library of Congress Daily Digest Bulletin – War Powers Resolution

Friday, April 24, 2009

Subject: Constitutional Interpretation and War Powers Resolution Sections Added to the U.S. Constitution Website

Constitutional Interpretation and War Powers Resolution Sections Added to the U.S. Constitution Website

The Law Library of Congress is proud to present two new articles focusing on U.S. constitutional issues. Both articles are available in their entirety in PDF on our U.S. Constitution web page, which includes one book, twenty-four articles, and six statements to Congress.

Constitutional Interpretation

Louis Fisher, “Interpreting the Constitution: More than What the Supreme Court Says,” Extensions, Fall 2008. In a democratic society, questions of constitutional law require a political dialogue that involves all three branches of the national government, all fifty states, and the general public. If the meaning of the Constitution depended solely on unelected judges, popular sovereignty would be undermined and replaced by judicial, hyper-technical interpretations increasingly alien to the public. There is no historical support for the view that judges are better positioned to safeguard minority and individual rights. Mutual respect among the branches and between the branches and the public provide continuing legitimacy and life to the Constitution.

War Powers Resolution

Louis Fisher, “The Baker-Christopher War Powers Commission,” 39 Pres. Stud. Q. 128 (2009). In July 2008, the National War Powers Commission recommended the repeal of the War Powers Resolution and its replacement with the War Powers Consultation Act. Co-chaired by former Secretaries of State James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher, the commission report promised “equal respect” to the legislative and executive branches. In fact, it greatly strengthens the President’s capacity to initiate war and weakens congressional and public control. Instead of addressing the framers’ fear of placing the war power in the hands of a single executive, the report claims that the U.S. Constitution is “ambiguous” about war powers and that federal courts “for the most part” have declined jurisdiction over war powers cases. Both assertions are false.

http://www.loc.gov/law/help/usconlaw/constitutional_law.php

==========

National Security Archive Update, April 23, 2009 – ROBERT F. KENNEDY URGED LIFTING TRAVEL BAN TO CUBA IN ’63

Attorney General cited inconsistency “with traditional American liberties”

State Department overruled RFK proposal to withdraw prohibitions on travel

Documents Record First Internal Debate to Lift Ban

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, DC, April 23, 2009 – Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sought to lift the ban on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba in December 1963, according to declassified records re-posted today by the National Security Archive. In a December 12, 1963, memorandum to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Kennedy urged a quick decision “to withdraw the existing regulation prohibiting such trips.”

Kennedy’s memo, written less than a month after his brother’s assassination in Dallas, argues that the travel ban imposed by the Kennedy administration was a violation of American freedoms and impractical in terms of law enforcement. Among his “principal arguments” for removing the restrictions on travel to Cuba was that freedom to travel “is more consistent with our views as a free society and would contrast with such things as the Berlin Wall and Communist controls on such travel.”

This document, and others relating to the first internal debate over lifting the Cuba travel ban, are quoted in an opinion piece in the Washington Post today, written by Robert Kennedy’s daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Her article argued that President Obama should consider her father’s position and support the Free Travel To Cuba Act that has been introduced in the U.S. Congress.

Kennedy Townsend’s article is available here:

http://tinyurl.com/cmqets (www.washingtonpost.com)

Visit the Archive’s Web site for more information:

http://www.nsarchive.org

==========

April 2009 Southwest Climate Outlook

Friday, April 24, 2009

The April 2009 Southwest Climate Outlook is online. This month’s feature article is entitled, “Climate data: the ins and outs and where to find what.”

To view the Southwest Climate Outlook in html format or the printer-friendly PDF file visit:

http://www.climas.arizona.edu/forecasts/swoutlook.html

Highlights from the April 2009 Outlook

Drought– Short-term drought conditions remained unchanged across northern Arizona, while worsening conditions were observed over the southeastern quarter of the state. For New Mexico, worsening drought conditions continued again this month; more than 60 percent of the state is experiencing some level of drought.

Temperature– The past 30 days brought a series of fairly dry cold fronts to the northern half of New Mexico and the northeast and northwest corners of Arizona, dropping temperatures as much as 3 degrees below average.

Precipitation– In the past 30 days, many parts of Arizona, and southern New Mexico had less than 25 percent of their average precipitation. Average precipitation since October 1 in many regions of both states has been less than 70 percent.

ENSO– The La Niña of 2008–2009 is almost over, and forecasts strongly support a quick move towards ENSO-neutral conditions over the next several months.

Climate Forecasts– The long-lead forecasts indicate the Southwest has increased chances for summer temperatures to be similar to the warmest 10 years of 1971–2000 and increased chances for precipitation through October to be similar to the wettest 10 years of 1971–2000.

The Bottom Line– Precipitation has been scant during the past 30 days. Mid-March to mid-April delivered less than 70 percent of average precipitation to most of the Southwest and only slightly more rainfall than mid-February to mid-March totals. As a result, drought conditions have expanded. Because April–June historically is very dry, the next sustained precipitation will likely not occur until the monsoon season Begins.

Zack Guido
Associate Physical Scientist
Climate Assessment for the Southwest
Institute for the Environment
University of Arizona
(520) 882-0879
http://www.climas.arizona.edu/

==========

And now for the important news ….

By Argus Hamilton

Somali pirate chief Abduhl Wali-i-Musi was arraigned in Manhattan Tuesday following his capture at sea last week. He’s locked up in the same jail as Bernie Madoff. It just shows that the only difference between civilization and Somalia is a salad fork.

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com

==========

three thousand words

(click here to view)

Elena Steier Center for American Blogress Apr 26, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

Tom Toles: stress test
(d.yimg.com)

Mike Luckovich: Following Orders
(politicalirony.com)

Book Review: Mark Twain’s New Book

A collection of unpublished works reveals musings on dentists and the devil

Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124000246279630121.html#printMode

By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg

April 18, 2009

Mark Twain would have been amused by the publication of his newest book, “Who Is Mark Twain?” a collection of 24 previously unpublished stories and essays that officially goes on sale Tuesday — the 99th anniversary of the humorist’s death at age 74.

After all, as Twain wrote in his essay “The Privilege of the Grave,” about a work he’d finished but decided not to print because of the mischief it would cause, “I will leave it behind, and utter it from the grave. There is free speech there, and no harm to the family.”

The works in the coming book were chosen by ROBERT HIRST, GENERAL EDITOR OF THE MARK TWAIN PROJECT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. It oversees a collection of Twain papers donated by the author’s daughter, Clara Clemens Samossoud, who died in 1962.

There were various criteria for inclusion, says Mr. Hirst. “I wanted things of high quality that Mark Twain would have published except for circumstances,” he says, citing a piece about the Boxer Rebellion in China that Twain held after he learned that the reports on which he’d based his work were false….

All of these stories are part of a very large cache of work that the university owns. At one point the holdings included 700 unpublished manuscripts and 3,000 original letters, almost all of which were donated by Twain’s daughter. After 1962, various titles were selected for publication, but Mr. Hirst says that early editors didn’t set up a complete publishing plan. The stories in “Who Is Mark Twain?” were part of the material that remained unpublished from the original collection….

==========

RELIGIOUS REVOLT: NEW CHRISTIAN SECT BATTLES DEMONS, RAISES THE DEAD, CAMPAIGNS FOR SARAH PALIN

By Bruce Wilson, Religion Dispatches

This disturbing “Third Wave” of Christianity is growing faster than the earth’s population and faster than Islam.

http://tinyurl.com/devuhq (www.alternet.org)

==========

CONSERVATIVES LIVE IN A DIFFERENT MORAL UNIVERSE — AND HERE’S WHY IT MATTERS

By Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune.com

Liberals and conservatives have highly different moral priorities. And we have to understand them if we want to accomplish anything.

http://tinyurl.com/c43lzp (www.alternet.org)

==========

AU @ctivist :: REMINDER Grassroots Training in San Antonio, Saturday, May 2

Monday, April 20, 2009

is limited so please RSVP today, if you wish to attend.

Don’t Agonize, Organize!

Effectively Defending Church-State Separation in Challenging Times

May 2, 2009
Holiday Inn Express
1309 East Commerce
San Antonio, TX 78205
9 AM Registration and Sign In
9:30 AM – 4: 30 PM Training

Please join us for an activist training on Saturday, May 2nd from 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM. A staffer from the Americans United national office and a guest trainer will lead participants through workshops on “The Nuts and Bolts of Grassroots Organizing” and “Leadership Development and Transitioning.” Updates and information from the national office will also be provided.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn new skills and to network with other church-state activists.

The guest trainer will be:

Yvette DeLaCruz, Consultant, Public Services International

To RSVP for this training, please contact Allendra Letsome (letsome@au.org or 1-800-875-3707 x202) with the following information:

Name:
Phone Number:
E-mail Address:
Chapter Affiliation (if any):
Dietary Restrictions (if any):

There is no charge for the training and lunch will be provided.

Space is limited and we need to have an accurate lunch count, so please RSVP today.

For more information on how to get involved, please contact our Field Department.
Call (202)?466-3234—or email auactivist@au.org.

is limited so please RSVP today, if you wish to attend.
Don’t Agonize, Organize!
Effectively Defending Church-State Separation in Challenging Times

May 2, 2009
Holiday Inn Express
1309 East Commerce
San Antonio, TX 78205
9 AM Registration and Sign In
9:30 AM – 4: 30 PM Training

Please join us for an activist training on Saturday, May 2nd from 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM. A staffer from the Americans United national office and a guest trainer will lead participants through workshops on “The Nuts and Bolts of Grassroots Organizing” and “Leadership Development and Transitioning.” Updates and information from the national office will also be provided.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn new skills and to network with other church-state activists.

The guest trainer will be:

Yvette DeLaCruz, Consultant, Public Services International

To RSVP for this training, please contact Allendra Letsome (letsome@au.org or 1-800-875-3707 x202) with the following information:

Name:
Phone Number:
E-mail Address:
Chapter Affiliation (if any):
Dietary Restrictions (if any):

There is no charge for the training and lunch will be provided.

Space is limited and we need to have an accurate lunch count, so please RSVP today.

For more information on how to get involved, please contact our Field Department.
Call (202)?466-3234—or email auactivist@au.org.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State

http://www.au.org/

==========

AU Press Release :: AU Files Suit To Block Public School Graduation Ceremonies In Wisconsin Church

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Americans United Files Suit To Block Public School Graduation Ceremonies In Wisconsin Church

Watchdog Group Files Case On Behalf Of Local Families Who Object To Sectarian Venue For Public Event

April 22, 2009

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today filed a lawsuit in federal court to block a Wisconsin public school district from holding graduation ceremonies in the sanctuary of an evangelical church.

The suit, filed on behalf of a graduating senior and several families in the district, challenges the Elmbrook School District’s decision to hold graduation ceremonies for Brookfield Central High School and Brookfield East High School at Elmbrook Church.

“Public schools should schedule graduation ceremonies at public venues where families of all faiths or none will feel welcome,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Some parents and children do not feel comfortable attending commencement in this religious setting. Graduation is too important to leave some families out.”

Elmbrook Church displays a large cross in its sanctuary, and the facility includes other religious iconography as well. Church officials have refused to cover the cross. On at least one occasion, members of the church passed out religious literature to graduation attendees in the lobby.

Read the full press release at au.org

http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=10397

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State

http://www.au.org/

==========

Stop Taxpayer-Funded Religious Discrimination!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Join our fight against taxpayer-funded religious discrimination!

For years, well-funded religious organizations have gained access to the White House, successfully promoting public funding for faith-based human service initiatives. We hoped that things would change with a new administration. Unfortunately, they have not.

Yesterday, Toni Van Pelt, Director of the Center for Inquiry’s Office of Public Policy, joined other members of a broad-based coalition of church-state separation advocates for a meeting with senior staff at the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Joshua DuBois, the Office’s executive director, took part in this important meeting. (Mr. DuBois was a Pentecostalist pastor who served as director of religious affairs during Obama’s campaign.)

During the meeting, Ms. Van Pelt expressed CFI’s serious concerns and disappointment over the new president’s failure to repeal five Bush administration executive orders and numerous agency regulations and rulings that apply to the faith-based office. Those executive orders, regulations, and rulings permit faith-based programs to engage in religious discrimination — using your tax dollars.

In February, we were dismayed when President Obama announced his plan to expand George Bush’s Faith-based Initiatives. CFI’s Office of Public Policy immediately released a position paper
http://tinyurl.com/c9j29x (www.centerforinquiry.net) criticizing the president’s initial plan and calling for the immediate implementation of legal safeguards to protect religious freedom and church-state separation.

Why are these actions such a grave concern to us? President Obama’s plan fails to adequately address harmful discrimination by religious organizations that benefit from your tax dollars. Also, his initial plan fails to prevent the use of public money for construction and renovation of buildings used for religious worship. It does not bar religious organizations from proselytizing in publicly-funded programs.

If this discrimination is allowed to continue, which rights will we lose next?

President Obama has said repeatedly that he believes in the separation of church and state. We believe him, and we hope to work hard to keep him to his word. Without your financial assistance, however, we cannot effectively maintain the Office of Public Policy. We may not be able to keep our hard-won foothold in Washington.

Your donation today will help CFI to hold the president to his unfulfilled promise to correct the Bush administration’s abuse of the Constitution. Your gift today will help to ensure that we can continue to fight for science and secularism in the Nation’s capital and to continue to uphold your rights.

Please join us by making the most generous gift possible today!

https://secure.ga1.org/05/Faithbased_policy

Sincerely,

Sherry Rook
Director of Development, the Center for Inquiry

P.S.: Do you have questions about supporting CFI?
Contact Sherry at srook@centerforinquiry.net or call (716) 636-4869 ext. 427.

==========

In Search Of The Holy Dead

From dismembered toes to leathery tongues, Peter Manseau explores the centuries-old obsession with relics, the body parts of long-dead saints and spiritual leaders.

The child of a former Roman Catholic priest and a mother who was a nun, Peter Manseau is making a career of writing about religion and spiritualism at its most unorthodox. Killing the Buddha: A Heretic’s Bible, which he co-wrote with Jeff Sharlet, is a rewrite of the Bible based on stories of religious experience they collected during a yearlong road trip across the country. Manseau’s memoir, Vows, is the story of his parents’ decision to leave behind lives of religious celibacy to marry and have a family, and of their efforts to reform the church that refused to forgive them for breaking their vows.

In his latest book, Rag and Bone, Manseau takes on what some might think of as one of the more macabre manifestations of faith: relics. From dismembered toes to leathery tongues, Manseau explores this centuries-old obsession with the body parts of long-dead saints and spiritual leaders. In the course of his travels he has seen not one, but two purported heads of John the Baptist, one in Istanbul and one in Damascus. And he has a few stomach-turning stories of how people tried to steal these body parts and spirit them away.

But Manseau doesn’t see reverence for relics as a bizarre religious practice. “These bones — fragile, mortal, beautiful — are where belief begins,” he writes. They are part of the tradition of Christianity, Buddhism and Islam.

Manseau grew up as a Catholic after Vatican II when relics were deemed irrelevant. But the author was fascinated by them because he has always been “drawn to hidden histories.” And he insists that Rag and Bone is not a book about death, but about life, movement and the stories that surround these objects of devotion and faith.

This reading of Rag and Bone took place on April 4, 2009, at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

From:

http://tinyurl.com/cq7wbr (www.npr.org)

==========

How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace

William Lobdell

At age 27, journalist William Lobdell hit a low point and, like many of us, began a search for God. At the urging of a friend, he attended an evangelical mega-church and liked what he saw. He started to “yearn to be part of this appealing club,” he recalls in “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace,” “to get some of what they appeared to have — simple happiness.”

He fell in love with a God who loved him perfectly. He publicly pronounced Jesus Christ as his personal lord and savior. He prayed for $50,000 and, sure enough, $50,000 came in. He began to attend church every Sunday morning with his wife and children and even to tithe. He began to wonder, “Why were so many stories about Christians negative or dismissive?” He had an epiphany. He heard the voice of God saying, “Why don’t you become a religion writer?”

Lobdell prayed, with fervor, for a religion writing job at this newspaper, and in 1998, that materialized too. He very reasonably became interested in writing about people who lived as if the Scriptures were true. He found much to admire in billionaire philanthropists Susan and Henry Samueli and mega-preacher Rick Warren. He visited the Orange County branch of the Catholic Worker movement and found that the couple who ran it “believe in Christ as much as they believe in breathing.” He was intrigued by people who had made sacrifices because of their beliefs, by people who had been beaten down by life but still didn’t blame God. The whole “God thing” seemed to be working for him.
…

http://tinyurl.com/dxctjk (www.latimes.com)

==========

Salinas priest jailed on sex abuse claim

San Jose Mercury News – CA, USA

A Salinas priest has been arrested for allegedly having sexual contact with a teenage boy. Father Antonio Cortes remained jailed on $775000 bail Friday
…

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12167834

Huffman High band director arrested in sex case

WAAY – Huntsville,AL,USA

(AP) – Huffman High School band director Patrick Jerome Whitehead of Pinson has been arrested and charged with sexual abuse by force and sodomy. …

http://www.waaytv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10209089

More claims against ex-priest Second Navajo man comes forward with …

Gallup Independent – Gallup,NM,USA

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola

WINDOW ROCK — A second Navajo man has filed a clergy sex abuse lawsuit against a former Franciscan priest who worked on the …

http://www.gallupindependent.com/2009/04April/041709moreclaims.html

Three new lawsuits claim sexual abuse by Belleville Diocese priests

Belleville News Democrat – IL, USA

In the new lawsuits naming Kownacki, the ousted priest is accused of abusing minors by “by touching or fondling … genitalia and engaging in oral sex. …

http://www.bnd.com/news/crime/story/731483.html

Judge denies bond for Belle Glade minister in teen sex scandal

Palm Beach Post – FL, United States

Harris was charged with aggravated battery after Tamara Martin said he grabbed a bat and swung it in her direction. Martin claimed Harris yelled at her and …

http://tinyurl.com/crv2rg (www.palmbeachpost.com)

==========

Little Johnny rib

At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs.

Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, “Johnny what is the matter?”

Little Johnny responded, “I have a pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife.”

==========

three thousand words

(click here to view)

Charlie Daniel Knoxville News Sentinel Apr 22, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

Divid Horsey: christians assert their faith …
(www.seattlepi.com)

Vote for Charles Darwin
(imgur.com)

A Meditation on Our Monetary System: State of Permanent Siege

By Richard Cook
Global Research, April 22, 2009
showcase.bestcyrano.org/

THE LEVEL OF PUBLIC IGNORANCE on the topic of the U.S. and world monetary system is astonishing. This is part of the plan, of course, because the monetary elite control not only the financial system but also the news media, the publishing industry, and the educational system. The blueprint for control was put together over a century ago by Cecil Rhodes and his friends, including British financier Nathan Rothschild, as documented by Professor Carroll Quigley.

During the 20th Century the power shifted to the U.S., with the Rockefellers playing the dominant role as they continue to do today. It is no accident that J.P. Morgan Chase—the Rockefeller family bank—dominates the U.S. derivatives market; nor that Exxon-Mobil, the Rockefellers’ oil company, is the most profitable corporation in history.

The basic plan was to place all of mankind in a state of permanent mental and emotional siege so that in the end we would trade all our liberties to the controllers in return for protection; even freedom of thought would be traded for physical safety. That plan is well advanced. The sheeple have been prepared for the final shearing.

Meanwhile, every attempt at real reform has been strangled in the cradle. Past voices for monetary sanity like those of Congressmen Louis McFadden and Jerry Voorhis were silenced. Starting in the 1970s, functionaries like Kissinger, Brzezinski, and Volcker carried out David Rockefeller’s plan to outsource manufacturing to China and eliminate the U.S. as the world’s greatest industrial democracy, replacing it with a financier oligarchy.

Barack Obama obviously works mainly for the financiers, as did Bill Clinton before him. The job of the Democrats is to keep the sheeple quiet by now and then implementing some “reforms”; the Republicans were a more blatant gang of looters.

During the 2008 election campaign, Ron Paul called for the end of the Federal Reserve, the bastion of financier control, but no one effectively organized the millions of people who responded to his call or had a viable plan to put in place. Barack Obama obviously works mainly for the financiers, as did Bill Clinton before him. The job of the Democrats is to keep the sheeple quiet by now and then implementing some “reforms”; the Republicans were a more blatant gang of looters.

With the financial crash of 2008-2009, the noose is tightening everywhere in the world. The International Monetary Fund is announcing, “The current global recession is likely to be ‘unusually long and severe, and the recovery sluggish.’” (BBC News, “IMF Sees Long and Severe Slowdown,” April 16, 2009.) In reality, as the IMF knows, it would be possible to put every nation in the world on the road to recovery by allowing them to prime the economic pump through sovereign control of their own monetary systems, with freedom to utilize their own natural resources.

The IMF announcement is in fact the start of a worldwide program of genocide similar to what was done to Russia in the 1990s, with crushing poverty, slashing of incomes, reduction of benefits for the poor and elderly, rising levels of disease and malnutrition, and reduction of life expectancy. We in the West will view the carnage with alarm from our own stripped-down economies but remain docile out of fear the same will be done to us.

Awareness of the hideous evil of the financiers’ plans to destroy the soul of humanity is growing. This is being accomplished through the internet and the work of a number of writers who understand what is at stake. I doubt this channel of expression will be available indefinitely. Already alternative websites are being isolated and marginalized. But the fight must be waged.

The one organization that has a program which is comprehensive and free from outside influence is the American Monetary Institute, which has drafted the American Monetary Act. If the Act is introduced in Congress, it will be imperative for it to be recognized and supported as the one chance to save our nation from the dark night that is threatening. But even progressive writers shrink from taking on the Monetary Power, with many of them putting forth the absurdity that all we need to do is reform the banking system.

The American Monetary Act has been in process since 2003. It may be found on the AMI website at:
http://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdf .

AMI will conduct a presentation on the Act on Capitol Hill, April 23, 2009, in Room 304 of the Cannon House Office Building. Presentations will take place at 10:00 AM and at 2:00 PM.

At the same time, groups of relatively conscious people can come together on their own to create refuges of sanity until the danger passes–over a period of years, decades, or even generations. And, to look at it from a spiritual perspective, we can hope that the Higher Powers who observe humanity’s destiny refuse to allow our particular experiment in consciousness to be obliterated.

Destruction of human consciousness is the real goal of the financiers and their minions. It is lies above all that do this. The financiers’ power is the biggest lie of all.

Richard C. Cook is a retired federal analyst who writes today on economic, political, and spiritual matters. His books and videos are available through his website at www.richardccook.com. He recently released his six-part video series: Credit as a Public Utility: the Solution to the Economic Crisis.

*The phrase “permanent siege” is from Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Against the Day.” Set at the end of the 19th Century, the novel describes the dynamics and strategy of the future totalitarian regimes of the approaching 20th century–i.e., a state of “permanent siege.”

From:

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13309

==========

Op-Ed: Good Government and Animal Spirits

Every talented player understands the importance of a strong referee.

Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124052797951850225.html#printMode

By GEORGE A. AKERLOF and Robert J. Shiller

MR. AKERLOF IS THE 2001 NOBEL LAUREATE IN ECONOMICS AND A PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. Mr. Shiller is professor of economics and finance at Yale University and chief economist at Macromarkets LLC. They are co-authors of the recently published “Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism” (Princeton).

April 24, 2009

The principal long-term result of the current financial crisis should be improved financial regulation. After the immediate crisis is over, we need to restructure our fragmented system. This process will take years to complete since, if properly done, it should get at the heart of the regulatory structure….

An understanding of animal spirits — the human psychology and culture at the heart of economic activity — confirms the need for restoring the role of regulators as guiding hands in a healthy, productive free-enterprise system. History — including recent history — shows that without regulation, animal spirits will drive economic activity to extremes….

Such a world of animal spirits justifies the economic intervention of government. Its role is not to harness animal spirits but really to set them free, to allow them to be maximally creative. A brilliant player wants a referee, for only when the game has appropriate rules can he really show his talents. While the sports of baseball and football haven’t changed much in the last century, the economy has — and American financial regulation hasn’t had an overhaul in 70 years. The challenge for the Obama administration, along with the U.S. Congress and our SROs, is to invent a new and better American version of the capitalist game.

…

==========

April 24, 2009

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
IMF Shouldn’t Get Money Without Reform
By Mark Weisbrot

This was published as an op-ed today in the on-line edition of the New York Times. Mark Weisbrot is the lead author of “Empowering the IMF: Should Reform be a Requirement for Increasing the Fund’s Resources?”

The International Monetary Fund turns 65 this year. Until the current economic crisis, it had reduced its workload drastically to a near-retirement level. Its total loan portfolio plummeted by 92 percent in four years. But like many senior citizens who have been hit by the world recession, the Fund has kept working past retirement age – and is now expanding its responsibilities.

The IMF has a track record, which seems to have been almost completely ignored in discussions of a proposed $750 billion increase in its resources. Nearly twelve years ago a financial crisis hit Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. The word “contagion” became part of the financial reporting lexicon as the crisis spread to Russia, Brazil, Argentina and other countries.

The IMF’s response to that crisis was roundly criticized by economists at the time. Jeffrey Sachs, then at the Harvard Institute for International Development, called the IMF “the Typhoid Mary of emerging markets, spreading recessions in country after country.” Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, also criticized the Fund for its mishandling of the Asian crisis, and went on to write systematic critiques of a number of IMF policies.

In the Asian crisis, the Fund failed to provide desperately needed foreign exchange when it was most needed. It then imposed policies that worsened the downturn. It did the same in Argentina, and lent tens of billions of dollars to prop up an unsustainable exchange rate, which inevitably collapsed along with a record sovereign debt default.

After that experience, many middle-income countries piled up reserves so that they would never have to depend on the Fund again.

No one at the IMF was held accountable for the mistakes that caused so much unnecessary unemployment, lost output, and poverty. Nor were any major reforms of the institution introduced. The Fund has 185 member countries, but a handful of rich countries – mostly the U.S., Europe, and Japan – have a solid majority and the U.S. Treasury is the Fund’s principal overseer.

The IMF claims that it has changed, but a look at nine “standby arrangements” – its basic short-term loan agreement — that it has negotiated since September of last year reveals a number of the same mistakes that it made in the last crisis. All of them provide for spending cuts, despite the IMF’s avowed commitment to a worldwide fiscal stimulus.

El Salvador has signed an agreement with the IMF that prevents it from using expansionary fiscal policy – as the United States is now doing – to counter a downturn. Since El Salvador has the U.S. dollar as its currency, fiscal policy – increased spending or lower taxes – is practically the only too it has to fight a recession that is practically inevitable as the U.S. economy continues to shrink. El Salvador gets 18 percent of GDP in the form of remittances from the U.S., and exports about 9.6 percent of GDP there.

Pakistan has agreed to significant spending cuts, as well as raising interest rates, despite negative demand shocks to the economy. Ukraine has also had to battle with the Fund over public spending cuts, despite the fact that GDP is falling by 9 percent this year and the country has a low public debt.

These and other examples indicate that in spite of the depth of the world recession, the Fund is too willing to sacrifice employment, and increase poverty, in pursuit of other goals. A country can always reduce a trade deficit by shrinking its economy, since that causes households and businesses to import less. The main purpose of IMF lending in the current crisis should be to enable low- and middle-income countries to do more of what the rich countries are doing: adopt stimulus packages that counter the downturn.

Most countries can do this, if they do not run into balance of payments problems. China, for example, has nearly $2 trillion in international reserves, and can therefore pursue a large fiscal stimulus. If the IMF were willing to help, more countries could follow suit.

Governments should not commit more money to the IMF without requiring that institution revisit its recently negotiated agreements, and adopt serious reforms that will require accountability and changes in policy.

Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. He is co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis, and has written numerous research papers on economic policy. He is also president of Just Foreign Policy.

About

The Center for Economic and Policy Research is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people’s lives. CEPR’s Advisory Board includes Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz; Janet Gornick, Professor at the CUNY Graduate School and Director of the Luxembourg Income Study; Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University; and Eileen Appelbaum, Professor and Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University.

Center for Economic and Policy Research, 1611 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009
http://www.cepr.net/

==========

Prolonged job losses strain state agencies

By Christine Vestal, Stateline.org Staff Writer

With more people collecting unemployment checks than at any time in U.S. history, states are struggling to keep up with demand. At least four unemployed workers are available for every job opening; as a result, a quarter of jobless workers have been unable to find work for six months or more.

Read More

http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=393189

==========

News Analysis: U.A.W. Grapples With Fate

New York Times

http://tinyurl.com/dm7vph (www.nytimes.com)

By Bill Vlasic

April 23, 2009

Detroit — Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Automobile Workers union, broke his silence of recent weeks on Wednesday, signaling his narrow focus in talks with the government and other stakeholders about restructuring Chrysler and aligning it with the Italian automaker Fiat….

Of all the parties in talks over Chrysler’s fate, none has more to lose in a bankruptcy than the U.A.W. A bankruptcy filing would jeopardize the union’s painstaking efforts to get financing for a health care trust to cover the future medical bills of 81,000 union retirees and surviving spouses.

“Ultimately, the union is very hostile to the idea of bankruptcy,” said HARLEY SHAIKEN, A LABOR PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY. “They see all the uncertainty, all the risk, and the chance that they could lose big in court.”…

But the banks see bankruptcy as a means to recover more of their loans than they can get at the bargaining table. If Chrysler were liquidated and sold off in parts, the secured lenders would be first in line to be paid.

“I’m not predicting a strike, but sometimes we forget that hardball can be played by more than one party,” Professor Shaiken said. “There’s a danger in these hardball approaches.”

==========

On Food Safety, Who’s Failing Us?

The ranks of both federal and state food safety inspectors are dwindling, leaving food processing plants to police themselves, according to an Associated Press investigation. The recent salmonella outbreak, traced back to a derelict peanut plant in Georgia, has once again thrust the nation’s food safety shortcoming into the spotlight.

Read more…

http://ombwatch.org/node/9694

==========

Conservative media claim prosecution of Bush administration officials will turn U.S. into “banana republic”

Conservative media figures are comparing possible prosecutions of Bush administration officials for their roles in authorizing the use of harsh interrogation techniques to circumstances in a “banana republic,” in “Third World … dictatorships,” or “some little Latin American country that’s run by … the latest junta.”

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200904230033?lid=1016791&rid=26424616

==========

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures: Dan Roam: Books

==========

Borowitz Report – Cheney Torture Shocker

April 24, 2009

Cheney Starts Pro-Torture Facebook Page
Creates Social Network for Waterboarding Fans

In his most aggressive public relations move since leaving office, former Vice President Dick Cheney today established a Facebook page for fans of torture.

In recent weeks, Mr. Cheney has been speaking out in praise of such controversial interrogation tactics as waterboarding, but in establishing his Facebook page the vice president seems to be attempting something far more amibitious: creating a social network for torture fans everywhere.

“This is a place where fans of waterboarding can meet, chat, and yes, hook up,” Mr. Cheney told Fox News host Sean Hannity last night.

The former vice president extolled his torture fan page as a dating site, telling Mr. Hannity, “This way when you go out on a date with somebody you know going in how he or she feels about waterboarding. I think that’s important in building a long-term and hopefully loving relationship. It’s certainly something Lynne and I share.”

But based on the tepid early response to Mr. Cheney’s torture fan page – only he and his wife Lynne have signed up to date – the vice-president may face obstacles in creating a social network of waterboarding fans.

“I can’t think of a creepier place to hook up with someone than a site that Dick Cheney is involved in,” said Tracy Klugian, 27, of Madison, Wisconsin. “I’d feel like someone was always watching me.”

At the White House, Vice President Joe Biden was harshly critical of his predecessor’s remarks on torture, telling reporters, “Dick Cheney had eight years to run his mouth without thinking. That’s my job now.”

THE COOLEST VIDEO CLIP ON THE INTERNET is at www.oliviagentile.com

Upcoming Events

April 30, 2009 at 8:00PM

Andy’s Only NY Show!
Andy reviews Obama’s first 100 days with special guests Hendrik Hertzberg (The New Yorker), Jonathan Alter (Newsweek, MSNBC) and comedian Judy Gold

Location:
The 92nd Street Y, Lexington and 92nd Street
For tickets go to 92y.org

May 23, 2009 at 2:00PM

Andy in Cleveland – Free Show!
Andy performs a free stand-up show in his hometown. Meet Andy and his wife Olivia Gentile; Olivia will read from her new book, LIFE LIST, and both will sign their books afterward.

Location:
Joseph-Beth Bookstore, 24519 Cedar Road, Lyndhurst

http://www.borowitzreport.com/

==========

three thousand words

(click here to view)

Paul Fell Artizans Syndicate Apr 24, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

Matt Wuerker: Republican Moral Relativism
(politicalirony.com)

Mike Keefe: State Government in Action
(www.intoon.com)