tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71006492023-11-16T03:24:28.406-08:00Let's Fly Under the BridgePatrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.comBlogger2410125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-66857248503748086402009-06-01T15:52:00.000-07:002009-06-01T16:00:55.423-07:00Yugo, GuyAsk the man who's <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124381203054570397.html"><span style="color:#cc0000;">owned one in the collective sense</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>When the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu decided in the mid-1960s that he wanted to have a car industry, he chose me to start the project rolling. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. I knew nothing about manufacturing cars, but neither did anyone else among Ceausescu's top men. However, my father had spent most of his life running the service department of the General Motors affiliate in Bucharest.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">My job at the time was as head of the Romanian industrial espionage program. Ceausescu tasked me to mediate the purchase of a minimum, basic license for a small car from a major Western manufacturer, and then to steal everything else needed to produce the car.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Three Western companies competed for the honor. Ceausescu decided on Renault, because it was owned by the French government (all Soviet bloc rulers distrusted private companies). We ended up with a license for an antiquated and about-to-be-discontinued Renault-12 car, because it was the cheapest. "Good enough for the idiots," Ceausescu decided....</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">"Too luxurious for the idiots," Ceausescu decreed when he saw the first Dacia car made in Romania. Immediately, the radio, right side mirror and backseat heating were dropped. Other "unnecessary luxuries" were soon eliminated by the bureaucrats and their workers' union that were running the factory. The car that finally hit the market was a stripped-down version of the old, stripped-down Renault 12. "Perfect for the idiots," Ceausescu approved. Indeed, the Romanian people, who had never before had any car, came to cherish the Dacia.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Ceausescu was an extreme case, but automobile manufacturing and government were never a good mix in any socialist/communist country. In the late 1950s, when I headed Romania's foreign intelligence station in West Germany, I worked closely with the foreign branch of the East German Stasi. Its chief, Markus Wolf, rewarded me with a Trabant car -- the pride of East Germany -- when I left to return to Romania.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">That ugly little car became famous in 1989 when thousands of East Germans used it to cross to the West. The Trabant originally derived from a well regarded West German car (the DKW) made by Audi, which today produces some of the most prestigious cars in the world. In the hands of the East German government, the unfortunate DKW became a farce of a car. The bureaucrats and the union that ran the Trabant factory made the car smaller and boxier, to give it a more proletarian look. To reduce production costs, they cut down on the size of the original, already small DKW engine, and they replaced the metal body with one made of plastic-covered cardboard. What rolled off the assembly line was a kind of horseless carriage that roared like a lawn mower and polluted the air worse than a whole city block full of big Western cars.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">After German reunification, the plucky little "Trabi" that East Germans used to wait 10 years to buy became an embarrassment, and its production was stopped. Germany's junkyards are now piled high with Trabants, which cannot be recycled because burning their plastic-covered cardboard bodies would release poisonous dioxins. German scientists are now trying to develop a bacterium to devour the cardboard-and-plastic body. </blockquote></span><br />The FLUBA awaits the <em>Obami.</em>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-56803796881100786902009-06-01T15:42:00.000-07:002009-06-01T15:51:16.457-07:00Never trust anyone over 30Especially with the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/business/01deese.html?_r=1&ref=politics"><span style="color:#cc0000;">future of the auto industry</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>It is not every 31-year-old who, in a first government job, finds himself dismantling</span><a title="More information about General Motors Corp" style="COLOR: rgb(0,66,118); TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/general_motors_corporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">General Motors</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"> and rewriting the rules of American capitalism.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">But that, in short, is the job description for Brian Deese, a not-quite graduate of Yale Law School who had never set foot in an automotive assembly plant until he took on his nearly unseen role in remaking the American automotive industry.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....A month ago, when the administration was divided over whether to support </span><a title="More information about Fiat S.p.A." style="COLOR: rgb(0,66,118); TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/fiat_spa/index.html?inline=nyt-org"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Fiat</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">’s bid to take over much of </span><a title="More articles about Chrysler LLC." style="COLOR: rgb(0,66,118); TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/chrysler_llc/index.html?inline=nyt-org"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Chrysler</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">, it was Mr. Deese who spoke out strongly against simply letting the company go into liquidation, according to several people who were present for the debate.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">“Brian grasps both the economics and the politics about as quickly as I’ve seen anyone do this,” said </span><a title="More articles about Lawrence H. Summers." style="COLOR: rgb(0,66,118); TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/lawrence_h_summers/index.html?inline=nyt-per"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Lawrence H. Summers</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">, the head of the National Economic Council who is not known for being patient whenever he believes an analysis is sub-par — or disagrees with his own. “And there he was in the Roosevelt Room, speaking up vigorously to make the point that the costs we were going to incur giving Fiat a chance were no greater than some of the hidden costs of liquidation.”<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Mr. Deese was not the only one favoring the Fiat deal, but his lengthy memorandum on how liquidation would increase </span><a title="Recent and archival health news about Medicaid." style="COLOR: rgb(0,66,118); TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/medicaid/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Medicaid</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"> costs, unemployment insurance and municipal bankruptcies ended the debate. </blockquote></span><br />That last sentence would seem to have let the cat out of the bag. This policy isn't about saving GM as much as it is about continuing to hide the insolvency of the agencies that politicians have touted as the 'social safety net' lo these many decades.Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-6031533602335907622009-06-01T15:34:00.000-07:002009-06-01T15:41:27.285-07:00The Trouble With LarryIrwin Stelzer thinks none of this would be happening <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/568xsdag.asp"><span style="color:#cc0000;">if Larry Summers was still alive</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>The administration, led by GM and Chrysler CEO Barack Obama, also decided to lay hands on the auto industry. First it shortchanged the companies' creditors--pension funds and investors who had lent the -companies money on terms that gave them preferential access to the companies' assets should there be a bankruptcy. What matter contractual obligations when the United Auto Workers is awaiting payback for its support of Obama in the primary and general election campaigns? Surely Summers knows that such a move will make investors more reluctant to lend in the future and inclined to charge higher interest rates to any companies they do finance. Some say Summers sat in on these meetings and either lost the argument--implausible, in the view of those who have jousted with him in the past--or remained silent. Say it ain't so, Larry.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The administration has also promised to lower health care costs by introducing new IT systems and expanding insurance coverage. Virtually every expert says that information technology might be a nice thing--automated records, easily accessible--but at best will have only a trivial effect on costs. And just how expanding coverage can lower costs remains a mystery to most economists. Unless, of course, the administration is planning to ration health care, a nightmarish system that until recently led the National Health Service in Britain to deny treatment to patients suffering from macular degeneration until they were blind in one eye. Summers knows all about these cost figures and the inefficiencies of rationing. Did he decide to go along to get along? Say it ain't so, Larry.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Then there is energy policy. The president says he can make us independent of foreign oil. Summers knows he can't. He knows too that many economists contend fuel efficiency standards are more likely to deny consumers the cars they want than to have any effect on global climate, given the developing countries' plans to build thousands of new coal-fired generating stations. .... Say it ain't so, Larry.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....There's more, but you get the idea. When Barack Obama won the election and began to staff up, those of us who worried that the administration's policies would lean so far in the direction of political pandering as to create serious economic problems took heart when we learned that Larry Summers was to be at the center of policy-making. His fearless intelligence and debating skills would certainly prevent the administration from making terrible, irrevocable policy errors. Christina Romer, chosen by Obama to chair his Council of Economic Advisers, might prefer that appointment to fidelity to her academic research findings--tax cuts are more effective in stimulating an economy than is spending--but surely Larry Summers would not. So great is his reputation that Obama's chief political adviser, David Axelrod, told the press, "I'm not sure we would have gotten him but for the fact that we have a crisis that is equal to his talents."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Many of us joined Axelrod in praising Obama for landing Summers. And those who know him even slightly had no doubt that he has the good sense to treat fools slightly more kindly than his reputation would lead one to expect. So he could be heard. But we wonder if his voice of sanity has gone the way of Paul Volcker's, stifled and ignored. Say it ain't so, Larry.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-61818167168030390502009-05-10T15:31:00.000-07:002015-10-21T07:32:24.584-07:00Home on the DerangedSteven Malanga details the decades long obsession American politicians have had with home ownership, and its <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_2_homeownership.html"><span style="color: #cc0000;">unintended consequences</span></a>. Predictably, no one seems to have learned:<br />
<span style="color: #3366ff; font-size: 85%;"></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #3366ff; font-size: 85%;">...before we’ve even worked our way through this crisis, elected officials and policymakers are busy readying the next. Barney Frank, the Massachusetts congressman who serves as chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has balked at proposals to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which would eliminate their risk to taxpayers and their susceptibility to political machinations. </span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="color: #3366ff; font-size: 85%;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #3366ff; font-size: 85%;">Why? Simple: the government uses them to subsidize the affordable-housing programs that Frank supports. California congressman Joe Baca, head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, also opposes reining in affordable housing lending. “We need to keep credit easily accessible to our minority communities,” he asserts. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3366ff; font-size: 85%;">Republicans and Democrats, meanwhile, have scrambled to reignite the housing market through ill-conceived tax credits and renewed federal subsidies for mortgages, including the Obama administration’s mortgage bailout plan, which recalls the New Deal’s H[ome]O[wner's]L[oan]C[orp]. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3366ff; font-size: 85%;">As Harvard economist and City Journal contributing editor Edward Glaeser has observed, mortgage lenders have finally “recovered their sanity”—only to have government dangling subsidized low interest rates and tax credits in front of them and their potential customers all over again. Behind these efforts is a fundamental misconception among politicians that housing drives the American economy and therefore demands subsidy at virtually any cost.</span></blockquote>
Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-45016256749413656012009-05-06T13:35:00.000-07:002009-05-06T13:39:01.866-07:00Emperor...No ClothesWe think Joe the Plumber and Cliff Asness would get along just fine:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>Here's a shock. When hedge funds, pension funds, mutual funds, and individuals, including very sweet grandmothers, lend their money they expect to get it back. However, they know, or should know, they take the risk of not being paid back. But if such a bad event happens it usually does not result in a complete loss. A firm in bankruptcy still has assets. It’s not always a pretty process. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Bankruptcy court is about figuring out how to most fairly divvy up the remaining assets based on who is owed what and whose contracts come first. The process already has built-in partial protections for employees and pensions, and can set lenders' contracts aside in order to help the company survive, all of which are the rules of the game lenders know before they lend. But, without this recovery process nobody would lend to risky borrowers. Essentially, lenders accept less than shareholders (means bonds return less than stocks) in good times only because they get more than shareholders in bad times.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The above is how it works in America, or how it’s supposed to work. The President and his team sought to avoid having Chrysler go through this process, proposing their own plan for re-organizing the company and partially paying off Chrysler’s creditors. Some bond holders thought this plan unfair. Specifically, they thought it unfairly favored the United Auto Workers, and unfairly paid bondholders less than they would get in bankruptcy court. So, they said no to the plan and decided, as is their right, to take their chances in the bankruptcy process. But, as his quotes above show, the President thought they were being unpatriotic or worse.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Let’s be clear, it is the job and obligation of all investment managers, including hedge fund managers, to get their clients the most return they can. They are allowed to be charitable with their own money, and many are spectacularly so, but if they give away their clients’ money to share in the “sacrifice”, they are stealing. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Clients of hedge funds include, among others, pension funds of all kinds of workers, unionized and not. The managers have a fiduciary obligation to look after their clients’ money as best they can, not to support the President, nor to oppose him, nor otherwise advance their personal political views. That’s how the system works. If you hired an investment professional and he could preserve more of your money in a financial disaster, but instead he decided to spend it on the UAW so you could “share in the sacrifice”, you would not be happy.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Let’s also mention only in passing the irony of this same President begging hedge funds to borrow more to purchase other troubled securities. That he expects them to do so when he has already shown what happens if they ask for their money to be repaid fairly would be amusing if not so dangerous. That hedge funds might not participate in these programs because of fear of getting sucked into some toxic demagoguery that ends in arbitrary punishment for trying to work with the Treasury is distressing. Some useful programs, like those designed to help finance consumer loans, won't work because of this irresponsible hectoring.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-63913832348947681212009-05-06T11:37:00.000-07:002009-05-06T11:45:41.310-07:00Careful what you wish for, UAWNYU's Thomas Cooley says, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/05/obama-talf-tarp-economy-uaw-opinions-columnists-chrysler.html"><span style="color:#ff0000;">you'll be sorry</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>Government interference in the normal conduct of business has had a chilling effect on financial markets and threatens the progress of the recovery.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Investors, other than the banks who desperately needed TARP funds for survival, are leery of any program that uses them. Anyone who took TARP funds has been subject to government interference in managerial decisions. The restrictions on bonuses and executive pay have been widely discussed in the media. Less well known are restrictions on the banks' ability to hire foreigners, and the constant harassment by Congress over internal management decisions on everything from the use of private aircraft to the locations of conferences. Some of these concerns are well justified, of course, but it wasn't clear ex-ante what all of the rules were and it isn't clear ex-post either.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....The Obama administration has shown repeatedly that it is willing to change the rules and even challenge the sanctity of contracts in the interests of its political agenda. The best, most recent example is the Chrysler restructuring.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The administration decided to tilt the restructuring in favor of the unions. The government proposed giving the United Auto Workers' retiree health fund a 55% equity stake in Chrysler--more than the combined stakes of Chrysler's merger partner, Fiat, or the other secured creditors that are owed roughly $7 billion. When some of the secured creditors, who were offered 30 cents on the dollar, balked, they were attacked by Obama as speculators.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Citi, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, all major recipients of TARP Funds, all deep in the pocket of the Treasury, agreed to the administration's plan. So it looks like bankruptcy law will take a back seat to social policy.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">There is at least some poetic justice in this outcome. The unions, whose years of work rules, and pension and health care deals helped sink the company, will have to eat their own cooking from now on. But their future success needs not only labor but capital.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Why would private capital get involved when the rules of the game are so capricious? No one would take that gamble when it is clear that, in dealing with the government, private capital will always take a back seat to politically powerful entities.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-651874280713682882009-05-03T16:42:00.000-07:002009-05-03T16:47:17.594-07:00Cheaters Never Prosper?It seems their <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5269426/Adultery-business-cashes-in-on-worlds-recession-worries.html"><span style="color:#990000;">enablers do</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>At the Ashley Madison agency, which revels in the motto, "Life is short. Have an affair," the global economic downturn is proving a boon for business.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....the message is hitting home as the economy reels, according to Noel Biderman, the company's founder and chief executive.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Membership has soared from one million to 3.6 million in just 12 months, and he expects another surge after the company launched a service allowing members to access the site from their mobile phones. The innovation is aimed at would-be cheaters who are nervous about leaving evidence of their infidelity on their computer at home or work.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Mr Biderman said that many couples who would otherwise have divorced were seeking affairs at the moment because of the cost of hiring lawyers and the difficulty of selling the marital home.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....It is free to register with Ashley Madison, but members pay with purchased credits to send messages to other users. The agency charges $49 (£33) for 100 credits or $249 for 1,000 credits and 50 credits buys 60 minutes of instant messaging time or 10 emails to different users.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-83154735454282805132009-05-03T16:05:00.000-07:002009-05-03T16:20:36.764-07:00They shoot horses, don't they?If, they don't, they might start, <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009164786_horse03m.html"><span style="color:#cc0000;">in Indian country</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>WARM SPRINGS INDIAN RESERVATION —<br />Here on this reservation in north-central Oregon, horses are woven deeply into daily life. They are traditionally used by tribal members in their work and their culture, whether it be for rodeos or horse parades.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Gathering, breaking and selling wild horses has long been part of the tribe's economy. Horses that don't make the grade are sold for slaughter.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">But the nation's final three slaughterhouses were shuttered two years ago, and a perfect storm has formed with a glut of horses, lack of a market and economic recession.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Tribal rangeland managers now estimate 20,000 wild horses are overrunning Indian Country in Washington, Idaho and Oregon, with an annual foal crop raising the population by some 20 percent a year. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Agricultural and rangeland experts from five tribes have been meeting quietly since last winter to explore options to manage horse populations on reservation lands. Their ideas, still in discussion, run the gamut. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The most controversial: opening a slaughter plant at the Warm Springs reservation, and maybe someday packing the meat for human consumption overseas, if the regulatory hurdles can be cleared and economics pencil out.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....There used to be a thriving horse market in this country, with buyers bidding on horses for processing plants in Stanwood; Maytown, Thurston County; and more than 20 other plants across the country, supplying an eager trade, particularly in Europe.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">But the country's remaining three horse slaughterhouses, in Illinois and Texas, closed in 2007 after a sustained campaign by animal-rights activists that resulted in Congress forbidding USDA inspection of horse meat for human consumption. That ended any legal commercial packing industry for horse meat in this country.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Still, there is a demand for horse meat, particularly in Europe. But with no packer competition in the U.S. to supply it, and a glut of horses, foreign packers can set their price.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Trucking the animals long distances to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico also means buyers will take only the fattest, biggest animals.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">For the sick, the old, and the skinny, today there is often no market at any price. Buyers who remember paying 70 cents a pound at auction are today paying as little as 6 cents a pound — if the packers will even take the animal.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....The bottom has fallen out of the horse market just as the recession is driving even owners of pedigreed, suburban stock to unload animals they can't afford to care for, overwhelming rescue and shelter operators.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">It's the same story for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is struggling to feed and care for some 30,000 wild mustangs gathered from public rangelands and put out to pasture in the Midwest in deference to opponents of slaughter.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The BLM is paying $27 million this year alone to feed and care for wild horses living out their days at taxpayer expense. With another 30,000 or so more wild mustangs still roaming the range, multiplying every year, the costs are growing. So far, the BLM has no solution to the problem.</blockquote><br /></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-13398691019767674322009-05-03T15:51:00.000-07:002009-05-03T16:01:36.527-07:00Hold the Phone!At the University of Washington, the PhDs are in...but their <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2009164504_danny03.html"><span style="color:#ff0000;">telephones are out</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>"I think we're all aware that we're living through events that in 10 or 20 years we'll be talking about in our classes," he said.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">He's referring to the day they took his telephone away.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">[Richard] Kielbowicz, whom I had to reach by e-mail, is a professor at the University of Washington's Department of Communication. These are lean times at the UW, so to save money this department that specializes in how society exchanges information has gotten rid of its landline phones.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Most professors have personal cellphones, so they're hardly shut off from the world. Still there are some who feel the demise of the landline phone is sad.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....On the other hand, the relics never rang anymore.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Kielbowicz, who teaches a course in the history of communication technology from the Gutenberg press to the World Wide Web, says his office phone would ring maybe once every two weeks. Calls became so rare that he began to view any that did come in with trepidation.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">"Students no longer call on the phone, ever," he said.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-90086631830707211222009-05-01T14:37:00.000-07:002009-05-01T14:45:44.574-07:00Republican Optimist, Thy Name Is...Mitch Daniels, <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/ii_20090427_3477.php"><span style="color:#cc0000;">governor of Indiana</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>In Indiana, Republicans are the party of change and reform; ask anybody -- our opponents, the press, everybody. In the rhythm of life here, four years ago we replaced a 16-year regime that had gone stale.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">And so we are the party that restored fiscal integrity. We are the party that addressed health care for the uninsured. We are the party that rebuilt an attractive business environment. We are the party that cleaned up the ethics issues in government -- that and much more. We attacked our infrastructure problem in a novel and taxpayer-friendly way.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....you know, the results are in -- and incidentally, we just won with the largest vote total in the history of elections in our state for any office any year.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....I guess what I'm saying is that when Indiana Republicans meet, I always tell them we cannot control what the party looks like in other places or nationally, but here in Indiana if we don't remain the party always defining the agenda, bringing the new ideas and standing for constructive change, then people will excuse us from duty. And they should. ...<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">People want to know first of all that you hear them and understand what's going on in their lives. I work at this incessantly -- I was riding all over Salden, Indiana, on my motorcycle Saturday -- and that you have some thoughts about how you make life better, more secure for them. Now, those thoughts can be animated by what we consider Republican principles, and that's fine. In other words, I don't think fiscal prudence went out of style; in fact, people are rediscovering it themselves, right? Save more, spend less -- and I think they expect government to emulate that.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">When we addressed health care for the uninsured, or insurance for those without, it's a very free-market solution -- it's basically HSA's for poor people -- and it's extraordinarily popular. I had a lady hugging me and crying down in a coffee shop in Connorsville Saturday morning because she got coverage -- I've had this experience a thousand times -- she got coverage and she couldn't possibly have had it any other way. I just think that the image problems we have are very real, but also addressable, by a Republican Party that goes out of its way to show that it cares about average people and the least advantaged.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Let me just go off on another one my little sermons I always give. Here's a political fact of life: You can be a blue-blood, silver spoon, coastal elitist, and if you have the Democratic label, you start with the presumption that you are connected to average folks. And the Republicans start with the negative presumption. So don't whine about it being unfair, just recognize it and go work on it.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-56600271370953568782009-04-23T14:10:00.000-07:002009-04-23T14:13:44.785-07:00Fat So?Life is like a box of chocolates, except you do <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1172971/Americans-bust-recession-blues-Hershey-bars.html"><span style="color:#cc0000;">know what you're getting</span></a> in this case:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>Consumers appear to be comfort eating their way through the recession if the surge in profits of U.S. chocolate giant Hershey is anything to go by.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The firm, which makes Hershey's Kisses and Kit Kat, today posted results for the first quarter of the year, revealing profits had jumped 20per cent annually.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Consumer psychologists are suggesting people could be using chocolate bars as a relatively cheap pick-me-up during the economic downturn.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-64880375011023077612009-04-21T09:10:00.000-07:002009-04-21T09:13:18.321-07:00No MasBritain expects every gardener to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5192286/Gardener-ordered-to-cover-up-naked-gnomes-after-neighbours-complain.html"><span style="color:#cc0000;">do her duty</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>Householder Sandra Smith has been ordered to cover up her garden gnomes after complaints that the naked ornaments were upsetting local children.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The gnomes, one male and two female, have stood in Mrs Smith's front garden for around 15 years in Hunnington in the West Midlands.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The grandmother has been forced to put clothes on the ornaments after a neighbour complained to Bromsgrove District Council and an officer phoned her.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-3485493288670634122009-04-20T10:17:00.000-07:002009-04-20T10:23:06.004-07:00Growth IndustryThe ghost of Eleanor Roosevelt makes a <a href="http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=157932"><span style="color:#cc0000;">comeback in Seattle</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>There's a bumper crop of new gardeners out there.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Business is booming at nurseries all [over] the Puget Sound [area], "It's easily been a 25 percent increase, if not more, this year in seed sales. Seed sales have been definitely huge for us," said Joe Abken of Sky Nursery in Shoreline.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">And it's not just the brick and mortar stores. Gardening expert Ed Hume says his online seed sales in February were up 40 percent. Something he attributes to the current economic situation, "When you get a downturn in the economy, then the vegetable seeds start to sell."</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Gardening advocates, who have long struggled to get America grubby, have dubbed the newly planted tracts "recession gardens" and hope to shape the interest into a movement similar to the victory gardens of World War II.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Those gardens, modeled after a White House patch planted by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1943, were intended to inspire self-sufficiency, and at their peak supplied 40 percent of the nation's fresh produce, said Roger Doiron, founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The National Gardening Association estimates that a well- maintained vegetable garden yields a $500 average return per year. A study by Burpee Seeds claims that $50 spent on gardening supplies can multiply into $1,250 worth of produce annually.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-14001605991078354602009-04-20T09:18:00.000-07:002009-04-20T09:22:51.839-07:00Battery UpThe Chinese expect their executives to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/5187270/Electric-cars-labelled-overhyped-at-Shanghai-Auto-Show.html"><span style="color:#ff0000;">take one for the team</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>Chinese companies, such as BYD, have been lauded for developing advanced batteries that could power a revolution in motoring.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">BYD, a former battery maker, was the first company in the world to start selling a heavily-electrified hybrid car last December, easily beating larger rivals such as Toyota to the market.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....The Chinese government has also committed to funding new technologies, such as BYD's iron-phosphate-based lithium ion batteries, with £1bn of research subsidies.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">In a bid to demonstrate the safety of his batteries to the environment, Wang Chuan-Fu, BYD's chief executive, has actually drunk a vial of his own battery fluid.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-68071979835821916192009-04-15T15:48:00.000-07:002009-04-15T15:56:01.691-07:00Not easy being greenKing County, Washington learns the <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009058259_webbikewreck16m.html"><span style="color:#ff0000;">cost of good intentions</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>King County has agreed to pay $3.5 million to a former Seattle man and his wife after the man suffered a permanent brain injury when he was thrown from his bicycle on a road east of Redmond.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Lawyers for Jeffrey Totten and his wife Danielle Leavell said the county was at fault because it promoted Novelty Hill Road as a bike route but failed to maintain it in a safe condition.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Physically, emotionally and cognitively disabled, Totten will never be able to work again. A Navy veteran, he bicycled daily from his home in Seattle's Fremont district to the energy firm where he worked in Issaquah.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The accident occurred while on a longer training ride with friends.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....John Christensen, an attorney for Totten and Leavell, said the family would have asked for more money if the case had gone to a jury.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Christensen said Totten was put in danger because of a lack of communication between the county Parks and Recreation Division, which promoted Novelty Hill Road in online and printed maps as a bike route, and the Road Services Division, which allowed a hole around the survey marker to grow deeper with successive paving jobs.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Leavell said her husband was training for the 700-mile Paris-Brest-Paris bike event when the accident occurred.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-75853280319078277062009-04-10T16:04:00.000-07:002009-04-10T16:16:41.650-07:00Eliminate the NegativeThen, accentuate the positive, with a little <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB123933128903407825-lMyQjAxMDI5MzE5MDMxMzAxWj.html"><span style="color:#ff0000;">help from a future POTUS</span></a>, and go on to direct some pretty <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_directed_by_Edward_Dmytryk"><span style="color:#cc0000;">good movies</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>Mr. [Edward] Dmytryk's story was a searing indictment of the [Communist] party. He described being part of a conspiracy to break up the American Federation of Labor in Hollywood and to replacing it with unions controlled by communists. He revealed that the party bullied filmmakers into molding the editorial content of pictures in keeping with the party line.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">He also said that the party had twisted his legal battle into a First Amendment issue so as to demonize congressional investigations. "It was like everything else the communists do," he told the Saturday Evening Post. "They would go into a lynching case, but instead of trying to help the Negroes, what they are really after is to use the incident to stir up still more trouble. The Negroes don't matter -- they're just a means to an end."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">[Ronald] Reagan was emphatic that Mr. Dmytryk go public. When Mr. Dmytryk agreed, Reagan built a coalition of liberals and conservatives to champion him. The team purchased a full-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter. "The Communist Party is now trying to destroy Edward Dmytryk," it read. "We will be surprised if there are not other attacks by the Party on other former communists who have the guts to stand up and be counted and to tell the truth."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Reagan argued to friends and colleagues that Mr. Dmytryk ought to be embraced for breaking with the Stalinists. The Reagan team even vouched for Mr. Dmytryk when he applied for life insurance.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-4299570333001892862009-04-06T13:38:00.000-07:002009-04-06T13:45:35.623-07:00The Coase FileGreen power, the salvation of the Obamanation, has a few <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008990618_windfarms06m.html"><span style="color:#ff0000;">problems of its own</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>Wind turbines may supply power without pollution but they are also generating complaints about noise and even possible health effects for people who live near them.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Dan Williams says the 240-foot-tall turbines he can see from his hilltop home near Boardman in Eastern Oregon make so much noise they keep him awake at night.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Williams is among neighbors along Highway 74 demanding that Morrow County enforce state noise regulations on the Willow Creek Wind Energy Project or revoke its land-use permit.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The 40-year-old construction contractor told The Oregonian newspaper in Portland that wind-energy companies downplay the noise.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">"They said this is going to be about as loud as your refrigerator in your house, which is a crock," he said.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Other critics, including some in Oregon, cite work by a New York doctor who coined the term "wind turbine syndrome" to describe effects such as headaches, dizziness and memory loss of living near the machines.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">"This thing is not rare," Dr. Nina Pierpont of Malone, N.Y., said of the syndrome.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....another resident of the area, Mike Eaton, agrees with Williams and other neighbors who complain about the noise and vibrations from the turbines.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The retired 61-year-old furniture maker said the turbines give him nausea by aggravating inner-ear and balance problems he's had since a 1966-67 tour in Vietnam subjected him to the constant pounding of an Army 155-mm artillery piece.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">"I cannot live where I'm living now with these decibels and vibrations," he said.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-49140643873296708512009-04-02T17:17:00.000-07:002009-04-02T17:25:05.264-07:00France: Danny Devito no genius!The star of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfL7STmWZ1c"><span style="color:#990000;">Other People's Money</span></a> probably wouldn't do too well <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/business/global/03labor.html?ref=global"><span style="color:#ff0000;">in this environment</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>PARIS — When negotiations over the revamping of</span><a title="More information about Caterpillar Inc." style="COLOR: rgb(0,66,118); TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/caterpillar_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Caterpillar</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">’s operations in the French city of Grenoble broke down this week, the workers did what more and more of their countrymen are doing these days: They took their bosses hostage.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">It was the fourth such incident in France in the last month.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">This week, François-Henri Pinault, the chief executive of PPR, the group that owns Gucci, was trapped by a group of employees who surrounded his car and blocked the road with garbage cans.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">In two other incidents last month, workers at a </span><a title="More information about 3M Company" style="COLOR: rgb(0,66,118); TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/3m_company/index.html?inline=nyt-org"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">3M</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"> plant held their boss for more than 24 hours in a labor dispute, and workers at a </span><a title="More information about SONY Corporation" style="COLOR: rgb(0,66,118); TEXT-DECORATION: underline" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/sony_corporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Sony</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">plant held their boss overnight to gain better severance packages.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">While detaining company executives against their will is not new in France, the tactic has been used only sparingly. But French labor policy experts say they expect more such actions because the despair and anxiety that drive employees to such acts is increasing as the labor market worsens.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">“The traditional way of holding a strike is to occupy the workplace, showing that ‘it’s our company, too,’ ” said Antoine Lyon-Caen, a professor of comparative labor law at the University of Paris-Nanterre. “It’s not unheard-of that the managers get taken hostage, but it has been very rare.” </blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-50481014200416641902009-04-01T17:40:00.000-07:002009-04-01T17:59:12.873-07:00When Bernie Went PonziFormer head of the NYSE, Richard Grasso, speculates it was when the investment world went <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-31/former-nyse-chairman-grasso-speaks-part-ii/"><span style="color:#ff0000;">penny wise instead of 1/8 foolish</span></a> in the late 90s. Which eliminated a very lucrative anomaly in trading, which Bernie Madoff had been exploiting:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote><b>How would you describe it to a layman?</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">His broker-dealer, Bernard Madoff [Investment] Securities, executed orders in Big Board-listed stocks away from the Big Board that were given to that broker-dealer by other broker-dealers in return for payment from order flow. He would pay a penny a share to many of the regional broker-dealers in the U.S. to effectively buy their order flow. And in return, he would execute those orders in-house, at Madoff [Securities], and take the risk of the offset—meaning that when he had an inventory, he would lay that inventory or sell that inventory back to the primary markets, principally to the NYSE. And when he had an exposure as a result of being short, he would cover, or buy shares to cover his risk on the primary markets. The broker-dealers who gave him that order flow effectively got a penny a share.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....<b>When you saw what he was doing, did it seem to be profitable to you?</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Extraordinarily profitable, because remember during the period of time when he was doing it, the minimum price variation was 12.5 cents—meaning the tightest the spread could be was separated by an eighth of a dollar, which meant that if he paid a penny coming in and paid a penny going out—meaning a penny to the buyer and a penny to the seller—it was potentially 10.5 cents of profit for the Madoff organization.</blockquote></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">But that good thing came to a halt:</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote><b>And how long did he get away with this?</b><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Oh, I would say 20-plus years. You see, what killed that business was when we went to pennies. Because you crush the spread and you crush costs. And there’s no more opportunity for him to pay a penny coming in if the market is a penny bid offered at two cents.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><b>Right. What year was that?</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">We started that process in 1997 by going from an eighth to a sixteenth, which, you know, took 50 percent of the profitability opportunity out. And then, by 1999, we went to a penny.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><b>So could that have been the first problem he had?</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Yes, I don’t think there’s any doubt that the economics of his primary business evaporated. </blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-42513307859005445772009-03-30T16:30:00.000-07:002009-03-30T16:36:20.066-07:00But everyone knew her as NancyIt's adults only in some libraries, thanks to the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123837358752967989.html"><span style="color:#cc0000;">Speaker of the House of Representatives</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>In February, an overzealous law governing lead in products resulted in toys going from store shelves to the trash heap. Now, confusion over how the rules affect children's books has led some libraries to rope off kids' sections.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Older books pose hardly any danger, according to safety experts at the Centers for Disease Control. The problem is the ambiguity in a law that leaves businesses facing lawsuits if they can't prove their products are safe. In addition to libraries, thrift stores, church bazaars and small batch toymakers are also unclear what they can and can not sell. Makers of bicycles and ATVs have pulled youth models -- designed to increase safety -- off the showroom floor at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Nancy Pelosi boasted last summer that the toy safety law would mean products weren't merely made differently in the future but would be removed from the shelves today. That's the real source of this mayhem, as she was amply warned at the time by Democrat John Dingell, among others. Ms. Pelosi prevailed, and now the harm to thousands of businesses, charities and even public libraries is manifest. Since the House Speaker won't admit a mistake and fix the law, the [Consumer Products Safety Commission] must do what it can to prevent more damage to the already challenging economy.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-6267682577817220742009-03-29T19:50:00.000-07:002009-03-29T19:56:22.751-07:00Burma ShaveThere's <a href="http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma.htm"><span style="color:#ff0000;">nothing new</span></a> under <a href="http://adage.com/article?article_id=135534"><span style="color:#990000;">the road that meets the rubber</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote> Don't be surprised if you see Col. Sanders out filling potholes. In an unusual cause-marketing push, KFC is tackling the pothole problem in Louisville, Ky. in exchange for stamping the fresh pavement with "Re-freshed by KFC," a chalky stencil likely to fade away in the next downpour.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">"This program is a perfect example of that rare and optimal occurrence when a company can creatively market itself and help local governments and everyday Americans across the country," said Javier Benito, exec VP-marketing and food innovation at KFC. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson noted in a statement that budgets are tight for cities across the country, and finding funding for road repairs is a dirty job. "It's great to have a concerned corporation like KFC create innovative private/public partnerships like this pothole refresh program."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">The KFC program appears to be part of a growing body of consumer-service marketing that connects in a meaningful way. This past holiday season, </span><a class="body" title="Toilet-Paper Bow Is Not a Statement on the Economy" style="COLOR: rgb(204,102,0)" href="http://adage.com/adages/post?article_id=132463"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Charmin</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"> provided a public restroom in Times Square for the third year running. The company has also developed an</span><a class="body" title="Charmin Shows BlackBerry, iPhone Users Where to Go When They Gotta Go" style="COLOR: rgb(204,102,0)" href="http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135482"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">application</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"> for iPhone and BlackBerry that helps consumers find toilets when the need arises.</span><a class="body" title="Make Your Marketing Useful, Like Samsung and Charmin" style="COLOR: rgb(204,102,0)" href="http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=127292"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Samsung</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"> has installed electrical charging stations in many major airports to help travelers stay connected while in limbo.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Perhaps most importantly, while KFC seems more suited to pot pies than potholes and efforts like these are unlikely to sell chicken sandwiches in the short term, the company is likely to build a reservoir of goodwill among the general population -- particularly when they arrive at the pothole they've gotten used to swerving around.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-12171233991657305582009-03-25T16:48:00.000-07:002009-03-25T17:23:32.941-07:00The Barack Obama DollWhen you pull its string, it says, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/24/AR2009032403036.html"><span style="color:#ff0000;">'Math is hard'</span></a>.<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>In that sense, what it would do is it would equalize -- when I give $100, I'd get the same amount of deduction as when some -- a bus driver who's making $50,000 a year, or $40,000 a year, gives that same $100. Right now, he gets 28 percent -- he gets to write off 28 percent. I get to write off 39 percent. I don't think that's fair.</blockquote></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">That is, of course, the flip side of progressive income tax schemes. High income people pay higher marginal tax rates and thus have higher incentives to donate to charity as a result. Obama seems to be decrying the unfairness of higher tax rates to people who pay lower rates.</span><br /><br />But, it gets worse for Obama as the questioner follows up:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>QUESTION: It's not the well-to-do people. It's the charities. Given what you've just said, are you confident the charities are wrong when they contend that this would discourage giving?<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">OBAMA: Yes, I am. I mean, if you look at the evidence, there's very little evidence that this has a significant impact on charitable giving.</blockquote></span><br />About the evidence, Obama is wrong--as <a href="http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2009/03/i-give-up.html"><span style="color:#990000;">Tom Maguire has noted</span></a>--there is such evidence.<br /><br />However, this morning in the NY Times, carries an open letter that says <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all"><span style="color:#ff0000;">that ain't Jake</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;"><blockquote>...I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.’s or the federal government’s budget.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;">....On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients.</blockquote></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">It would only be far less if Obama gets his way and reduces the deduction for charitable deductions, because Mr DeSantis can, as of the law now, donate the entire amount of the bonus prior to taxes. But, it seems that confiscatory taxes do have the expected incentive, contrary to what the President said in his news conference.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-91488116783259919412009-03-25T14:46:00.000-07:002009-03-25T14:54:19.943-07:00Happy as a Pig in SlopBarack Obama backer and financial supporter of the Democrats <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1164771/Im-having-good-crisis-says-hedge-fund-manager-1billion-world-plunged-recession.html"><span style="color:#ff0000;">squeals in delight</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>A hedge fund manager who predicted the global credit crunch has said the financial crisis has been 'stimulating' and the culmination of his life's work.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">George Soros, who predicted the global financial crisis twice before, was one of the few people to anticipate and prepare for the current economic collapse.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Mr Soros said his...decision to come out of retirement in 2007 to manage the [Quantum] fund made him $US2.9 billion.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">And while the financial crisis continued to deepen across the globe, the 78-year-old still managed to make $1.1 billion last year.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">'It is, in a way, the culminating point of my life’s work,' he told national newspaper The Australian.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Soros is one of 25, top hedge fund managers from across Wall Street who have defied the credit crunch crisis to reap a total of $11.6billion (£7.9bn) last year.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-68216007862975240442009-03-25T13:41:00.000-07:002009-03-25T13:48:46.811-07:00It shall be a crime......not to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1164815/Pubs-offer-smaller-glasses-wine-cut-drinking-says-Government.html"><span style="color:#cc0000;">drink small wine</span></a>:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>Pubs will be forced to sell wine in smaller glasses as part of a new Government crackdown on binge drinking.</blockquote></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">No word yet on how many hoops the <a href="http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/characters/charlines.php?CharID=JackCade&WorkID=henry6p2&cues=0&longlines=1"><span style="color:#ff0000;">three hoop pot</span></a> will need to have:</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;"><blockquote>Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows reformation. There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped pot; shall have ten hoops and I will make it felony to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass: and when I am king, as king I will be,—</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7100649.post-60518705999539907812009-03-24T17:15:00.000-07:002009-03-24T17:19:17.869-07:00Well, Do you feel lucky?Do, ya, <span style="color:#cc0000;">Mr. Yamaguchi</span><span style="color:#000000;">:</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><blockquote>A man of 93 has become the first person certified as a survivor of both the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of the Second World War.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Tsutomu Yamaguchi appears to be the only person in history to have survived not one, but two atomic bomb blasts.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">....Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on August 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city.<br />Traumatised, he then sought the refuge of his hometown - Nagasaki.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">With devastating timing, he arrived just in time for the second attack, city officials said.</blockquote></span>Patrick Sullivanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14948365865741313524noreply@blogger.com0