Tuesday Linkage
By Barry Ritholtz - July 27th, 2010, 4:44PM
Worth your time:
• Study: Boards Use Peers to Inflate Executive Pay (Dealbook)
• How hunger affects our financial risk taking (BPS Research)
• ‘Systemic risk’ theory gains in stature as way to prevent the next bubble (Washington Post)
• Apartment Rentals Surge in U.S. on Foreclosures, Jobs (Bloomberg)
• Bruce Bartlett: Sweden imposes a penalty rate on excess reserves while the Fed subsidizes banks for not lending. (Fiscal Times)
• Credit Cards Take From Poor, Give to the Rich (WSJ)
• Another Way to Look at HAMP (The Mess That Greenspan Made)
• Who Killed the Climate Bill? (Foreign Policy)
• Pols Cope With Fiscal Cognitive Dissonance (Barron’s)
• The Best Magazine Articles Ever (kk)
What are you reading?
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July 27th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Currently reading….
- Bank of America charges $30 to stop a check. Every six months. Forever.
- http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Stop-Payment-Now-Stop-It-nytimes-185872181.html?x=0&.v=1
- iPad Owners Are ‘Selfish Elites.’ Critics Are ‘Independent Geeks.’
- http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/07/ipad-owner-are-selfish-elites-critics-are-independent-geeks-says-study/
July 27th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Robert Reich
The Great Decoupling of Corporate Profits from Jobs
Monday, July 26, 2010
Second-quarter earnings reports are coming in, and they’re making Wall Street smile. Corporate profits are up. And big American companies are sitting on a gigantic pile of money. The 500 largest non-financial firms held almost a trillion dollars in the second quarter, and that money pile is growing larger this quarter. Profits that plummeted in the recession have bounced back. Big businesses have recovered almost 90 percent of what they lost.
So with all this money and profit, they’ll start hiring again, right? Wrong – for three reasons.
First, lots of their profits are coming from their overseas operations. So that’s where they’re investing and expanding production.
…
http://robertreich.org/post/863304269/the-great-decoupling-of-corporate-profits-from-jobs
July 27th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
July 27, 2010
More Job-Seekers Hitch Ride on Asian Economy
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/business/global/28jobs.html
July 27th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
New Gulf oil spill.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38429966/ns/us_news-environment/
Small perhaps, but ???
July 27th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
The State is in a death match with the Corporation and guess who is winning. (h/t Warisacrime.org)
Zero consequences and fat profits- makes you proud to be an American, don’t it?
Hexavalent chromium case: Iraq contractor cut deal for lawsuit immunity
” July 13, 2010 American taxpayers — and not KBR– will likely pay if the war contractor is found to have harmed Oregon Army National Guard veterans who say they were exposed to cancer-causing chemicals in Iraq. The startling details emerged in documents related to a U.S. District Court hearing Monday that illuminate the secretive world of defense contracting.
Documents show that within days of the 2003 Iraq invasion, Kellogg, Brown and Root delivered an ultimatum to the Pentagon:
Either the Army cover the potential cost of any soldier or civilian killed or harmed on a KBR project – or the defense contractor would not carry out its no-bid contract restoring Iraqi oil.”
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/taxpayers_not_kbr_could_foot_l.html
July 27th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Hey @JoJo
Joshua over at the reformed broker has a term for this.
Recovery Apartheid
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2010/07/27/recovery-apartheid/
July 27th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
“A few years ago, the Wall Street Journal asked in a headline whether the U.S. government was “outsourcing its brain.” With contractors able to hoard public information, influence policy, and put blinders on government supervision, the unavoidable answer to that question appears to be “yes’. Government that literally doesn’t know what it is doing can scarcely be operating effectively. Moreover, it is vulnerable on all fronts.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janine-r-wedel/emshadow-eliteem-selling_b_655392.html
Coming to an American city near you:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/27/nevadas-economic-misery-m_n_661043.html
Which fits in with:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/07/summer-rerun-america-banana-republic-watch.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29
If we had leadership in this country we may be going toward:
http://smartgrid.ieee.org/
and
http://nucleargreen.blogspot.com/2010/07/moving-toward-marketable-generation-iv.html
Because it is “Energy cheaper than from coal”
http://energyfromthorium.com/2010/07/11/ending-energy-poverty/
July 27th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Target Corp. gave $150,000 to MN Forward. Is this really in the shareholders interest to give to a group who is running ad for a man with limited ability to win?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCmaPDpI03kpkM76IMiBmXiEdqLwD9H7H6480
July 27th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
consumer get real?
http://econompicdata.blogspot.com/2010/07/consumers-getting-realistic.html
July 27th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
permanent high unemployment?
http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/conf/conf53/papers/Ball.pdf
July 27th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
“Recovery Apartheid”
callistenes,
that’s a good way to ‘tag’ the (get out your Mirror) “y”-shaped ‘Economic Recovery’ ..
~~
“…After constructing a large rainwater collection system at his new dealership to use for washing new cars, Miller found out that the project was actually an “unlawful diversion of rainwater.” Even though it makes logical conservation sense to collect rainwater for this type of use since rain is scarce in Utah, it’s still considered a violation of water rights which apparently belong exclusively to Utah’s various government bodies.
“Utah’s the second driest state in the nation. Our laws probably ought to catch up with that,” explained Miller in response to the state’s ridiculous rainwater collection ban.
Salt Lake City officials worked out a compromise with Miller and are now permitting him to use “their” rainwater…
It’s all about control, really
As long as people remain unaware and uninformed about important issues, the government will continue to chip away at the freedoms we enjoy. The only reason these water restrictions are finally starting to change for the better is because people started to notice and they worked to do something to reverse the law…”
http://www.naturalnews.com/029286_rainwater_collection_water.html
~~
“July 27, 2010
The combination of millions of gallons of oil and dispersants has made large areas of the Gulf toxic and dangerous, marine toxicologist Ricki Ott saying if she lived there with children she’d leave – based on her firsthand experience after the 1989 Prince William Sound, Alaska Exxon Valdez disaster and subsequent research, documented in her books titled, “Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill” and “Not One Drop – Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.”…”
http://uruknet.com/?p=m68324&hd=&size=1&l=e
July 27th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
BR – I see that you’ve landed Joshua from The Reformed Broker – I read him religiously, congratulations!
Is he Invictus? ;-)
July 27th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
July 26, 2010
EPA Releases Rulemaking Guidance on Environmental Justice
News release: “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing an interim guidance document to help agency staff incorporate environmental justice into the agency’s rulemaking process. The rulemaking guidance is an important and positive step toward meeting EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s priority to work for environmental justice and protect the health and safety of communities who have been disproportionally impacted by pollution.”
http://www.bespacific.com/
~~
“This article explores the corner of the Internet landscape that concentrates on legal research. For the most part, these databases and search tools are free, although some might require a library card. Essentially, this is a short list of “go to” sites that most researchers will find useful. Before delving in, it might be worthwhile to examine a few time tested research concepts for the Internet age.
Principally, there are two goals of a search, …”
http://www.llrx.com/features/basiclegalresearchinternet.htm
~~
“…While harvesters may be required to re-plant the stripped landscapes they leave behind, it should be remembered that mono-crop plantation forests are not ecosystems and massive quantities of herbicides are needed to prevent weeds from overtaking the seedlings.
Extraordinary conjecture is utilized to rationalize the removal of our forests:
“… many of our Western forests are at risk of turning from a carbon sink to a carbon source,” Tom Tidwell, the head of the Forest Service, told a Senate subcommittee on Nov. 18 in a hearing on forest management and climate change.
“Projections indicate that while these forests continue to sequester more carbon in the short-term, in 30 to 50 years, disturbances such as fire and insects and disease could dramatically change the role of forests, thereby emitting more carbon than currently sequestering.”
So on the one hand, the scientific community considers forests to be carbon sinks, and, when convenient, forests are presented as a carbon threat by government officials. Professors at Oregon State University are unconvinced, and suggest that clearing forests for biofuel could potentially release more carbon through transport and processing than if the material were simply burned in the woods…”
http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/carbonphobia-the-real-environmental-threat/
July 27th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
In regard to credit cards and just about any other device used in our Hellstrom’s Hive to enrich the few at the expense of the many, the following quote sums it up nicely:
This is the system — the creed, the extremist faith — that all “serious” players in all the “major” power faction on both sides of the Atlantic adhere to. Their god of greed demands human sacrifices: and so the poor must die. And to keep the system going, more and more people must be made poor: first those in the “outer darkness” of faraway lands, then finally those in the sacred “Homelands” themselves. We have been watching the latter process play out slowly in the past few decades — but it is accelerating now at dizzying speed.
As I once noted here awhile back of some our representative elites:
“Perhaps if they could obtain these same privileges as easily by other, less horrific means, they would. As it is, they take the world as they find it, and go about their business without fretting over the consequences — the dead, the ruined, the spreading hate, the poisoned planet. Why should they care? As the maggot cannot see beyond the meat, so too these [people] of greed-stunted understanding can see nothing of worth outside their own bottomless appetites.”
Chris Floyd is a frequent contributor to CounterPunch. His blog, Empire Burlesque, can be found at http://www.chris-floyd.com.
July 27th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Systemic Risk = Human Greed reinvented! Shall we reinvent Self Deception while we are at it!
July 27th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
The Gulf oil slick has disappeared faster than anyone thought possible. According to one environmental group, up to 40% of the spill evaporated as soon as it hit the surface!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/us/28spill.html
July 27th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
MEH,
If I might nitpick on this quote:
>> So on the one hand, the scientific community considers forests to be carbon sinks, and, when convenient, forests are presented as a carbon threat by government officials.
Wood holds carbon. If forest fires burn the wood, much carbon will be released. This has nothing to do with “convenience”. I think whoever wrote that “when convenient” clause did so in order to unfairly impugn the AGW scientists.
Other than that, good links and info. Thanks.
July 27th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
Sorkin says Goldman exonerated in AIG debacle:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/business/27sorkin.html?_r=2&ref=business
Thoughts?
July 27th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
mbelardes Says:
“Sorkin says Goldman exonerated in AIG debacle:”
Does it really matter?
If Regulators Say Trade Through a Central Exchange…
Goldman Sachs starts a central exchange.
Is it me, or does it just seem that whatever the rules or regulations, Goldman comes out on top and pretty much ends up running the show?
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/07/if-regulators-say-trade-through-central.html
July 27th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
wunsa-,
ceetainly, feel free to pick all the nits you care to..
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Nits (middle definition, obviously)
though, more seriously, yes, of course that Author’s choice of Words is meant to convey a POV–at the minimum. but, He is illuminating a rhetorical tactic being used.
(people should understand http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/CalvinCycle.html
to see: the steps in the fixation of carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. All of these reactions occur in the stroma of the chloroplast.) “Photosynthesis: Pathway of Carbon Fixation”
this: “…disturbances such as fire and insects and disease could dramatically change the role of forests, thereby emitting more carbon than currently sequestering.”, is, simply, disingenuous.
With that type of ‘thinking’, We might, as well, actively denude the whole of our Biosphere. You know, ‘because some day’ it could prove to be a source of ‘Carbon release’..
frankly, it’s assinine, and these boys and girls(Professors at Oregon State University) are sound, when they remain “unconvinced”.
~~
Photosynthesis is a reduction process, where hydrogen is reduced by a coenzyme. This is in contrast to respiration where glucose is oxidised.
The process is split INTO two DISTINCT areas, photolysis (the photochemical stage) and the Calvin Cycle (the thermochemical stage). The diagram below gives a summary of the reaction, where light energy is used to initiate the reaction in its presence;
CO2 + H2O > glucose + oxygen
Photolysis
This part of photosynthesis occurs in the granum of a chloroplast where light is absorbed by chlorophyll; a type of photosynthetic pigment that converts the light to chemical energy. This reacts with water (H2O) and splits the oxygen and hydrogen molecules apart.
From this dissection of water, the oxygen is released as a by-product while the reduced hydrogen acceptor makes its way to the second stage of photosynthesis, the Calvin cycle.
Overall, since the water is oxidised (hydrogen is removed) and energy is gained in photolysis which is required in the Calvin cycle
The Calvin Cycle
Also known as the carbon fixation stage, this part of the photosynthetic process occurs in the stroma of chloroplasts. The carbon made available FROM breathing in carbon dioxide enters this cycle, which is illustrated below: …
http://www.biology-online.org/1/4_photosynthesis.htm (as intro)
http://search.yippy.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&v%3Aproject=clusty&query=Photosynthesis+Carbon+fixation
July 27th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
F411: they seem to be forgetting that BP dumped mucho dispersants into the Gulf with who knows what consequences. Just cause they can’t see it from a plane don’t mean it’s gone.
July 28th, 2010 at 12:05 am
Nice post at Institutional Risk Analytics today:
http://us1.irabankratings.com/pub/IRAMain.asp
He should stop beating around the bush, though.
July 28th, 2010 at 12:10 am
Best magazine articles ever…… What a hoot. Who makes this stuff up?
I refer to Edward Wadie Said’s article in the October 22, 2001 article in “The Nation” attacking Samuel Huntington’s book “The Clash of Civilizations”.
One of the central themes of Huntington’s book was that ‘Islam has bloody borders.’
Interesting that a Palestinian-American, Mr. Said would write a diatribe against a man who warned about Islamist fanaticism fully five weeks after 9/11.
It begs the question. Who in the hell nominated this article as legitimate? The PLO?
Read Huntington’s book and decide for yourself.
Since this is a financial blog, I will nominate as best article EVER, the Economist Magazine’s August 1982 (I forget the week) cover article “The Bull Jumped Over The Moon.” That issue puts to rest the notion that magazine covers are always contrary indicators.
If anyone still reads books, the best investment advice for the last generation can be found in Herman Kahn’s 1982 classic “The Coming Boom.” I miss that old fat man. He was a treasure and a true gentleman.
“Buy good stocks and when they go up, sell them.
If they don’t go up, don’t buy them.” Will Rogers.
July 28th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Ilya:
I would suggest that the viewpoint on bloody borders could be reversed: the borders of the Developed West tend to be pretty bloody. I would think body counts of the the past 20 years would show we have a kill ratio of 10 to 1 or more. I count here Iraq (probably 50 or 100 to 1 in our two invasions), Afghanistan, Israel and the Palestinians, and various other adventures. In fact, one of Bin Laden’s “justifications” for 9/11 was the large toll of innocent Muslims killed by indiscriminate US attacks. Ron Paul made the unfortunate mistake of mentioning this during his presidential campaign.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Extend Bush Tax Cuts for All – TheStreet
“…Contrary to the propaganda coming out of the White House and the Treasury, George Bush achieved a lot of growth the first seven years of his presidency by deregulating the economy and cutting taxes…”
Huh? Yeah nice bang for the buck there Bush, thanks for the $10T in debt, the negative ^ 1/2 percent growth in your last quarter and the near depression with all the debt that got us there. What a nut job this clown from “the street” is.
Oh and “contrary to the data” these rates paid down the deficit under Clinton.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10818545/1/extend-bush-tax-cuts-for-all.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEFI
July 28th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Central bank Stress Tests?
“Central banking is broadly profitable in normal times, largely due to seignorage income … These accumulated risks now implicate some 20 per cent of global gross domestic product….”
Are you sure? Exactly twenty? Not 25%? Then this howler…
“…Consider Asian central banks, with their total of $5,000bn in foreign reserves. These assets are often mistakenly seen as a sign of strength. As the vast bulk of liabilities against these reserves are denominated in local currencies, a prolonged period of US dollar and/or euro weakness would generate unprecedented marked-to-market losses. A 20 per cent appreciation of the remnimbi versus the People’s Bank of China’s owned foreign assets would thus result in a hit to Chinese federal finances of some 10 per cent of domestic GDP…”
…of course the US Fed and other Central banks would GAIN that amount… but let’s only look at half the equation. What moron invests in this guy’s hedge fund?
http://m.ft.com/cms/s/0/9fa3b6be-98e6-11df-9418-00144feab49a.html
July 28th, 2010 at 10:42 am
First they tell us Obama’s always blames Bush, now they tell us Obama always blames business.
…from the FT, this time Zuckerman…
“…Washington’s ability to initiate a resurgence is limited by the long-term dangers of our deficits and our debts. But one unfortunate pattern that has emerged in the past 18 months is to lay all the blame for our difficulties on the business community and the financial world…”
…All Mort? Really? Why not look at the data instead of these nonsensical straw men and spin jobs.
http://m.ft.com/cms/s/0/a18bd9a2-98e6-11df-9418-00144feab49a.html
July 28th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Zuckerman has been on everything from Mclaughlin to Schultz pushing that memo.