Sunday, February 28, 2010
Pravda Gets It!
Mike Nifong Does Texas
"Now it's time for the sherriff who investigated her and the district attorney [DA] wwho prosecuted her to be brought to justice. We can only fantasize. ... The Medical Board [MB] already knew Arafiles. In 2007 it had placed him under certain restrictions for three years. Two days after receiving the anonymous letter, the board notified him of the complaint and some of its details. ... In addition, according to testimony at trial, he joined in pushing doc's $40 bottles of herbal supplement, even holding meeting at Pizza Hut to recruit other salesmen. ... [MB] offficials assumed he was investigating the doctor, according to a spokeswoman. In a letter to him, they said that under the law the letter could not be released except to a law enforcement official 'conducting a criminal investigation of a license holder of the TMB.' Nurses are not licensed by the [MB]. ... Instead of coorrecting the board's assumptions, the sherriff used the letter to identify the nurse who was over 50 and had been with the hospital since the 1980s. He obtained a search warrant of her computers and found a copy of the letter. ... Within weeks however, [DA] Mike Fostel offered a deal: The indictment would be dropped if the women agreed not to sue the county or its hospital. Smart man, but it didn't work. The nurses filed a federal lawsuit. ... Meanwhile the Texas [MB] has expressed its 'grave concern' about the indictments to Fostel and Tidwell. And national nursing organizations, outraged, raised $40,000 for the women's defense according to the [New York] Times", my emphasis, Rick Casey at the Houston Chronicle, 12 February 2010, link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/casey/6863319.html
"A West Texas jury took but an hour Thursday to acquit a nurse who had been charged with a felony after alerting the state [MB] that a doctor at her hostpital was practising unsafe medicine. ... The jury foreman said the panel of six men and six women voted unanimously on the first ballot, and questioned why Mrs. Mitchell had ever been arrested. ... The prosecution has so polarized the small town of Kermit, where the hospital is located, that the judge moved the trial to a neighboring county. The case was investigated by Sherriff Robert L. Roberts Jr. a friend and admiring patient ot Dr. Arafiles, and tried by the county attorney, Scott M. Tidwell, a political ally of the sherriff and, according to testimony, Dr. Arafile's personal lawyer", Kevin Sack at the NYT, 12 February 2010: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/us/12nurses.html.
This case shows why we need juries. The jury deliberated less than an hour to acquit Mitchell.
Amazing. A 2009 version of a "traveling medicine show". Well, how about an indictment of Fostel and Tidwell for "extortion under color of right", 18 USC 1951?
Quoted without comment.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Crime and David Ricardo
Goldman's Schtarkes-5
"A former [GS] computer programmer pleaded not guilty to charges that he stole computer codes used in the firm's high-frequency trading program. ... The case is set for trial beginning Nov. 29. ... At the plea hearing Assistant US Attorney Joseph Facciponti said a preliminary search didn't find any of Goldman's code on Teza's computers", Chad Bray at the WSJ, 18 February 2010 link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703444804575071453563822806.html.
Why is the SDNY US Attorney's office enforcing a Vampire Squid (VS) contract? Why ask, it's the VS after all. Why is the "non-compete" important to the SDNY US Attorney's office? What element of which count in the indictment does it fulfill?
Go Aleynikov!
Junior at Jr. Deputy Accountant has a related 12 February 2010 post: http://www.jrdeputyaccountant.com/2010/02/goldman-rats-go-after-hft-program-thief.html.
Friday, February 26, 2010
China's a Bubble!
39%! Wow. China's real estate market looks like a bubble from here.
Cheap Gold?
This is great news. Gold is cheap. Hold on Paulson.
Lean Manufacturing's Dangers
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Coming Currency Firestorm
No Pornography Viewers Stoneridge
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
He Don't Need No Law Degree
Pravda on Vampire Squid
More right-wing opinion from Pravda. Who would have believed this 20 years ago?
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Bust 'em UP!
I agree with AS and have advocated breaking up the TBTFs for years.
Newton on Economics
Monday, February 22, 2010
Argentina's Continuing Crisis
Obama, are you watching?
True Islam?
Sunday, February 21, 2010
SEC On-Mission
Wilson's Continuing Failure
Hitler was elected too. So? Consider this article's implications for American and European immigration policies.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Ken Lewis-Scapegoat-2
Paging General Stanley
Friday, February 19, 2010
Buchanan on Bernanke
I have said similar things for 30 years. Kill the Fed.
On Elites
"We do not expect or want elitists and moral supremacists who believe that they know so much more about justice, the market, and how we should live. In his recent book Intellectuals and Society, Thomas Sowell explains how the 'anointed' believe that their advanced education and depth of knowledge in one filed automatically makes them an authority on any field in which they wield an opinion. Thus Noam Chomsky, a noted scholar in linguistics, has written dozens of books condeming America's and Israel's foreign policy with only the illusion of authority. Sowell further explains that the most educated among us know only the smallest fraction of what is to be known. That these highly educated people may know so much more than any one of us does not mean that they know a fraction as much as do all of us. ... When prices a re-determined by central planning or anointed experts, shortages and gluts appear. ... Yet we often see intellectuals commit major logical errors even in the fields where they do have expertise. ... Even the brilliant Ben Bernanke, the most noted modern scholar on the Great Depression of 1929, stood before audiences only a few years ago and explained that the effect of subprime loans would be limited and that the financial system was sound", Henry Oliner at American Thinker, 30 January 2010, link: http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/why_elitists_fail.html.
Iraq has been a disaster. We lost. Iran won. Why? Watching Mr. Affirmative Action act as president may yield one good thing: discreding the Ivy League as a source of future presidents. More and more people can see "He" was pushed along despite his mediocre intellect, disagreeing with Michael Beschloss, who on 11 November 2008 said Obama's IQ is "off the charts". I doubt it's over 125. The Left is amazing. IQ bad except if you want to execute someone, then if it's below 70, good. I doubt Obama is anymore intelligent than George Bush II. Really!
Disagreeing with M&R, the Obamites look more like 1785's Bourbons. I await Michelle in a $3,000 dress, announcing, "Let them eat cake" as she serves Hors D'ouevres to Lloyd Antoinette Blankfein. The Obama Administration is a joke.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Affirmative Action White House
It was always about equality of outcome. Martin Luther King, our secular saint, said whatever he had to to further his goals, knowing 1964 America would not accept explicit quotas. How different things were 52 years ago when Hyman Rickover was a "rock star" and the US pushed "gifted kids" education.
Can't: Read, Watch or Comprehend
http://www.popecenter.org/print/print_article.html?id=2297.
http://www.popecenter.org/print/print_article.html?id=2300.
http://www.popecenter.org/print/print_article.html?id=2303.
The Fed's Cross of Paper
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Up the Ivy League
I remember Kennedy's administration. It was full of Harvard graduates. It turns out they didn't know what they were doing. They brought us the: Berlin Wall, Bay of Pigs and Vietnam.
Saudi Arabia-World Hypocrite
15 of the 19 9/11 highjackers were Saudis. Why didn't we invade SA instead of Iraq and Afghanistan? What's going on here? Did you know a non-Moslem cannot go to SA to view the Hajj? Did you know only Moslems can be citizens of SA? That SA ended slavery in 1961? That SA executes Islamic apostates? Why not? SA's oil is more valuable to the world than Joo blood. That's the bottom line. Anthing else you've been fed is nonsense.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Schooling as Fraud
Pension Funding
Monday, February 15, 2010
Exxon Invests
Debt Bomb
"In 2009 investors were warned about bubbles: a bubble in Treasuries, a gold bubble, and, finally, warnings of a rapidly expanding bond mutual fund bubble forming. It's brought to us by the [Fed's] 0% interest rate policy. Whether the flood into bond funds of all types was an intended consequence or not, it's now a flood that could go just as quickly the other way. ... There is a lot of unsophisticated money in bonds now, and I'm not sure investors understand how miserable things can get when the low interest rate party ends", Marilyn Cohen at Forbes, 8 February 2010: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0208/finances-junk-bonds-yield-interest-capital-markets.html.
If you have any type of bonds, no matter in what currency, sell! As for Walter Wriston, see my 30 October 2008 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/10/book-review-walter-wristons-bits-bytes.html.
I agree, the bond market is a disaster waiting to happen.Sunday, February 14, 2010
Sentencing Stupidity
WSJ on Chavez
The Bloodless Coup Continues-8
Quoted without comment.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Another SEC Nothingburger-2
Wall Street Control of DOJ Continues
Friday, February 12, 2010
Fig Leaf Justice
Leijonhufvud's Modest Proposal
AIG's Washington Follies
Thursday, February 11, 2010
No Fed Exit
FRBNY Negotiations?
"'There were too many people involved in the deals ... to keep a determined Congress from the information,' a New York Fed in-house lawyer James Bergin wrote to a colleague on March 6, 2009. ... Mr. [Henry] Paulson in prepared testimony said he believes that he, Mr. Geithner and Fed Chairman Beb Bernanke 'acted properly and in the best interests of our country.' He said he was 'confident' that the congressional review would show 'they sought to make appropriate decisions.' ... Staffers within the [FRBNY] have been taken aback by the recent assault on their decisions. 'We did everything we could for the right reasons. We were living in our offices, sleeping on the floow and trying to get through this financial crisis,' said Thomas Baxter, the [FRBNY's] general counsel, in an interview this week. ... Another downgrade would force AIG to pay out billions more to the counterparties and could give banks the right to terminate contracts and keep the collateral--moves that would likely send the insurer spiraling toward bankruptcy. On Nov. 5., the [FRBNY] received a presentation, a 44-page analysis put together by a unit of BlackRock Inc., saying that the banks had significant bargaining power with AIG and had little incentive to cancel the contracts unless they received par, or 100 cents, on the dollar", my emphasis, N&C at the WSJ, 27 January 2010, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703906204575027222044656574.html.
Quoted without comment.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Fisher's Folly
"[RF] raises important issues regarding efforts by some to influence [Fed] policy ... . But he must understand the political backlash against the central bank is partly of its own making. ... Ben Bernanke ... has given the appearance of making the Fed a division of the Treasury. That has politicized the Fed more than anything its critics could do. The only protection from political interference is a monetary rule. The gold standard was one such rule", Gerald O'Driscoll letter to the WSJ, 30 January 2010. Mr. Fisher indicates that he doesn't know that the Fed is already politicized", Don Crook letter to the WSJ, 30 January 2010, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094304575029452385284206.html.
RF is Dallas Fed president. This is nonsense. Congress created the Fed and can kill it. RF talks of "independence". From who? For what? "Nine-member boards of directors" hire and fire Fed heads. Do the Fed heads "represent the financial institutions ... of their respective districts"? Who represents the public? Kill the Fed.
Remake the SEC?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Odd Hobby
WSJ Slips Up
Monday, February 8, 2010
Blackwater's Black Hats-2
UBS Deal Collapses?
"The Swiss government on Wednesday backed off an agreement with the [US] that required it to hand over the names of wealthy American clients of the Swiss bank UBS who were suspected of tax evasion. ... The Swiss cabinet said it might put the disclosure of the names up for approval before the Swiss parliament--but only if if received detailed information from the [IRS] on how many UBS clients had come forward under a voluntary disclosure program that ended in November. ... IRS officials said Wednesday that Switzerland needed to hew to the August deal. 'We expect the Swiss government ot continue to honor the terms of the agreement,' the agency said in a statement. The [DOJ] declined to comment. ... Kevin E. Packman, a tax lawyer at Holand & Knight in Miami, said that the Swiss courts 'have put UBS and, so some extent the Swiss government in an uncomfortable position. I suspect that if the courts don't cooperate with the government to find a solution, things are going to get really ugly for UBS", LB at the NYT, 28 January 2010, link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/business/global/28ubs.html.
The Swiss buckle to the IRS, when they wouldn't to Adolph Hitler. Wow. That's clout. The Swiss should have told the IRS, "Indict UBS. Fair enough. We'll indict Citigroup and raise you a Vampire Squid (VS). Your turn".
No problem. Invade Switzerland! Wait, even Hitler didn't do that. I have a better idea for the Swiss. Threaten to indict Citigroup and VS for violating Swiss banking laws. I'm sure if the Swiss regulators look, they'll find something.