Neel Kashkari has surfaced.
As now routinely happens, some unknown person is thrust unprepared into the spotlight of the world's gaze. He retreats, writes The Book(or more commonly, works with a ghost writer), coaches for The Book Tour, hopefully makes some bucks for his pains, and moves on to the rest of his life.
Sweet.
Remember that out-of-body experience you had when you first heard of TARP, and then read the initial proposal floated to Congress? You know, the one that essentially turned the country over to the Secretary of the Treasury?
Neel drafted it.
Jesse, linked above, has the story, and some pithy insights to share. I hope you read them.
But here is how the 'priesthood' at Treasury decided that $700 billion dollars was the figure to demand:
In February 2008, Mr Kashkari was charged with drafting an emergency plan in case the credit crunch became a full-blown financial crisis. By October the crisis had arrived and his ten-page plan became the blueprint for the banks' bailout that Mr Paulson presented to Congress.
Mr Kashkari admitted that he plucked “a number out of the air” when deciding with Mr Paulson how much funding to request from Congress for the Tarp.
He told The Washington Post that he used his BlackBerry to calculate the bailout figures: “We have $11 trillion residential mortgages, $3 trillion commercial mortgages. Total $14 trillion. Five per cent of that is $700 billion. A nice round number.”
A nice round number, indeed.
I'd love to go create my own 'round number' credit line demand, be able to walk into a bank with a shotgun, hold the tellers hostage, and walk out with my own nifty credit card. I won't even need to pay it back, and the bankers will pour me champagne to celebrate my accomplishment.
I wouldn't even ask for that much. A billion will do.
A nice, round number.
Sweet.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
While The Media Obsess About Tiger Woods...
The students of Iran put their lives on the line in opposition to the regime.
These are posts sent from Iran, they seem authentic, but of course I can't verify them up to any real journalist's standard. So readers will have to judge for themselves.
The 'Basiji' referenced appear to be para-military/private-army types in service of the regime. It's not entirely clear from my reading, but they appear to be imports from Palestine, e.g. Hezbollah personnel, not native Persians.
It's hard to know what the students are seeking long-term, if anything. But it is clear they are deeply unhappy with the current regime.
These are posts sent from Iran, they seem authentic, but of course I can't verify them up to any real journalist's standard. So readers will have to judge for themselves.
The 'Basiji' referenced appear to be para-military/private-army types in service of the regime. It's not entirely clear from my reading, but they appear to be imports from Palestine, e.g. Hezbollah personnel, not native Persians.
It's hard to know what the students are seeking long-term, if anything. But it is clear they are deeply unhappy with the current regime.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Helicopter Ben's Legacy
HT to Skeptical CPA, who passed along this gem of wisdom:
If the US dollar were back on the gold standard, notes Societe Generale analyst Dylan Grice, then gold would have be priced at $7,648 an ounce in order to fully back all of the dollars in circulation.
Full article here.
Enjoy.
If the US dollar were back on the gold standard, notes Societe Generale analyst Dylan Grice, then gold would have be priced at $7,648 an ounce in order to fully back all of the dollars in circulation.
Full article here.
Enjoy.
The Rats Begin To Flee The Sinking Ship: So Long, Congressman Tanner
As it becomes obvious that The Beloved Leader and his gang are in for a brutal November 2010, the Democrat Congressional rats occupying vulnerable seats will begin to flee.
Locally, that would be John Tanner.
This is the guy who decries the national debt and proudly votes for unconstitutional travesties like the TARP, the Obama stimuli, and any piece of pork Mama Pelosi can serve to her vote-hungry minions. (He did vote against PelosiCare, to his credit, but I suspect it was because he perceived the voters were paying attention, and melting his staff's phones off in their hands.)
This August, he refused to schedule anything except 'phone-in' town hall meetings, essentially unpublicized. He did meet one group, at a state-run senior citizen's center, which was announced after the meeting took place. He knew what awaited him once the voters began paying attention. Calls to his office were generally met with hostile staffers who often did not even know the day's news, or what legislation was under consideration.
It's time to go, and he knows it.
Remember the old joke?
Q. What do you call twenty (fill-in-the-blank--usually lawyers) jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge?
A. A good beginning.
Now, as big a fool as Tanner is, I wish him no harm. I just want him out of public office, where he can do less harm to the nation.
With his announced retirement, we have a good beginning. Many more, from both parties, available to take that leap back into the Real World.
Plenty of room on that bridge, and plenty of time to act.
Green shoots nominee!
Locally, that would be John Tanner.
This is the guy who decries the national debt and proudly votes for unconstitutional travesties like the TARP, the Obama stimuli, and any piece of pork Mama Pelosi can serve to her vote-hungry minions. (He did vote against PelosiCare, to his credit, but I suspect it was because he perceived the voters were paying attention, and melting his staff's phones off in their hands.)
This August, he refused to schedule anything except 'phone-in' town hall meetings, essentially unpublicized. He did meet one group, at a state-run senior citizen's center, which was announced after the meeting took place. He knew what awaited him once the voters began paying attention. Calls to his office were generally met with hostile staffers who often did not even know the day's news, or what legislation was under consideration.
It's time to go, and he knows it.
Remember the old joke?
Q. What do you call twenty (fill-in-the-blank--usually lawyers) jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge?
A. A good beginning.
Now, as big a fool as Tanner is, I wish him no harm. I just want him out of public office, where he can do less harm to the nation.
With his announced retirement, we have a good beginning. Many more, from both parties, available to take that leap back into the Real World.
Plenty of room on that bridge, and plenty of time to act.
Green shoots nominee!
Oh Give Me A Home Where The Dromedaries Roam...
That sensation of relief felt over Thanksgiving that all will be well, and all manner of things will be well, with Dubai, may have been a teency-weency bit premature.
Nakheel PJSC creditors may win the right to seize a strip of barren waterfront land the size of Manhattan if the company defaults on the $3.5 billion bond backing the development.
Investors will be able to seek foreclosure on the property’s mortgages should the Dubai World unit fail to repay the loan, according to the bond’s prospectus. The debt is due on Dec. 14, after which Nakheel has two weeks to remedy a default. The property forms part of the Dubai Waterfront project, where Nakheel plans to build a city twice the size of Hong Kong.
Now, I'm aware I'm just a layman sitting in the wilds of Tennessee, but did anybody bother to question why somebody might want to build a city twice the size of Hong Kong? Did the kids with the B-school degrees who bought the bonds think to ask the obvious questions? Who **!!***??** NEEDS another city twice the size of Hong-frigging-Kong? Who's gonna populate it? What worthwhile activity will take place there that justifies its existence? Why are we lending to sheiks sitting on oceans of oil?
Why aren't we demanding the freaking OIL as collateral, instead of empty desert islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean? Does common sense never enter the equation?
In the meantime: Now the area is bare except for a cluster of partly finished low-rise buildings and idle cranes for hundreds of meters. Yesterday, camels roamed part of the land.
Dubai office values fell 58 percent in the year through September, according to Colliers International. House prices have plunged 50 percent from the peak last year. “If built houses drop 50 percent in value, un-built land will likely drop more,” he said.
Maybe they can build a camel race-track! Float bonds for it! Those coked-up morons in New York will buy anything, Ahmed.
Go for it, big guy!
Nakheel PJSC creditors may win the right to seize a strip of barren waterfront land the size of Manhattan if the company defaults on the $3.5 billion bond backing the development.
Investors will be able to seek foreclosure on the property’s mortgages should the Dubai World unit fail to repay the loan, according to the bond’s prospectus. The debt is due on Dec. 14, after which Nakheel has two weeks to remedy a default. The property forms part of the Dubai Waterfront project, where Nakheel plans to build a city twice the size of Hong Kong.
Now, I'm aware I'm just a layman sitting in the wilds of Tennessee, but did anybody bother to question why somebody might want to build a city twice the size of Hong Kong? Did the kids with the B-school degrees who bought the bonds think to ask the obvious questions? Who **!!***??** NEEDS another city twice the size of Hong-frigging-Kong? Who's gonna populate it? What worthwhile activity will take place there that justifies its existence? Why are we lending to sheiks sitting on oceans of oil?
Why aren't we demanding the freaking OIL as collateral, instead of empty desert islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean? Does common sense never enter the equation?
In the meantime: Now the area is bare except for a cluster of partly finished low-rise buildings and idle cranes for hundreds of meters. Yesterday, camels roamed part of the land.
Dubai office values fell 58 percent in the year through September, according to Colliers International. House prices have plunged 50 percent from the peak last year. “If built houses drop 50 percent in value, un-built land will likely drop more,” he said.
Maybe they can build a camel race-track! Float bonds for it! Those coked-up morons in New York will buy anything, Ahmed.
Go for it, big guy!
Sunday Evening 6 December
Church was good this morning. The children's choir sang like angels, accompanied by an angelic little harpist, and the Gospel and sermon were about Zechariah arguing with the angel Gabriel that miracles were just not possible in his day, and at his age. Little did he suspect that the Almighty was just getting warmed up.
A modest Christmas shopping trip, a lovely modest lunch with my lovely bride, who is herself a miracle, and home again to the house we've occupied for nearly twenty years. It dropped into our laps miraculously when we had not two nickels to rub together, and a number of people close to us really really furious that we had met and married.
But I do sympathize with old Zechariah. He was tired. He had fought the good fight for many a faithful year, and was grateful just to be alive and able to attend to his wife and his life. It wasn't so much lack of faith as abundance of experience, seeing too much evil flourish and too little virtue prosper in his day.
I admit it: I'm tired as well, for much the same reasons.
So tonight, here on 6 December, I'm making out the Christmas card list, and trying to remember just how well it all turned out for old Zechariah, who didn't realize that Providence was on deck, awaiting His turn at bat.
A modest Christmas shopping trip, a lovely modest lunch with my lovely bride, who is herself a miracle, and home again to the house we've occupied for nearly twenty years. It dropped into our laps miraculously when we had not two nickels to rub together, and a number of people close to us really really furious that we had met and married.
But I do sympathize with old Zechariah. He was tired. He had fought the good fight for many a faithful year, and was grateful just to be alive and able to attend to his wife and his life. It wasn't so much lack of faith as abundance of experience, seeing too much evil flourish and too little virtue prosper in his day.
I admit it: I'm tired as well, for much the same reasons.
So tonight, here on 6 December, I'm making out the Christmas card list, and trying to remember just how well it all turned out for old Zechariah, who didn't realize that Providence was on deck, awaiting His turn at bat.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
An Insight On The Eve Of The 'Jobs Summit'
Dean Dad at Inside Higher Education offers compassionate insight into the present job market.
And he's writing about the kids who have the resources of mind, character, and circumstance to actaully graduate college.
It's a good read, as are all of his posts.
And he's writing about the kids who have the resources of mind, character, and circumstance to actaully graduate college.
It's a good read, as are all of his posts.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Narrative of Radical Islam
The YewNork Times sometimes surprises me. I began to peruse a reprint from its Op-Ed page about the mass-murder Islamist Major Hasan, and expected to be treated to a carefully crafted explanation of why the good Major was a victim of our prejudices, why the murdered victims were actually at fault, and why he should be released to begin his book tour before Oprah calls it quits.
But this time, I was surprised. Thomas Friedman treats us to a thoughtful essay on just how totally poisonous radical Islam is, and how the Kool-Aid is distributed.
The Narrative is the cocktail of half-truths, propaganda and outright lies about America that have taken hold in the Arab-Muslim world since 9/11. Propagated by jihadist Web sites, mosque preachers, Arab intellectuals, satellite news stations and books — and tacitly endorsed by some Arab regimes — this narrative posits that America has declared war on Islam, as part of a grand “American-Crusader-Zionist conspiracy” to keep Muslims down.
In other words, the Narrative is B.S.
Major Hasan bought it hook, line, and sinker. Did absolutely everyone who worked with this whack-job day in and out simply not pick up on the fact that he was troubled?
But this time, I was surprised. Thomas Friedman treats us to a thoughtful essay on just how totally poisonous radical Islam is, and how the Kool-Aid is distributed.
The Narrative is the cocktail of half-truths, propaganda and outright lies about America that have taken hold in the Arab-Muslim world since 9/11. Propagated by jihadist Web sites, mosque preachers, Arab intellectuals, satellite news stations and books — and tacitly endorsed by some Arab regimes — this narrative posits that America has declared war on Islam, as part of a grand “American-Crusader-Zionist conspiracy” to keep Muslims down.
In other words, the Narrative is B.S.
Major Hasan bought it hook, line, and sinker. Did absolutely everyone who worked with this whack-job day in and out simply not pick up on the fact that he was troubled?
Utterly Stupid Palestinian Political Pooh-Pooh, But Should We Be Surprised?
No one has ever accused the Palestinians of being rocket scientists. After all, if you fire mortars at Israeli villages, you shouldn't be shocked to find Israeli tanks knocking at your door, genius. This stuff is not hard to comprehend.
But this episode is a new low, even for these clowns.
The Choir of Clare College Cambridge made plans to tour Israel this December with the Israel Camerata, presenting Bach's Christmas Oratorio in both Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
How completely horrible and unacceptable! University students singing Christmas music in (OMG!!!)...Bethlehem!
Some Palestinian groups raised a stink, so the Bethlehem concert was cancelled.
So what's so threatening to the Palestinians if Clare College Choir(one of the finest choral organizations in the world) sings the Christmas Oratorio in Palestinian territory?
Well, think about it. If you are running a government that specializes in creating and then idolizing suicide bombers, recruiting young people to destroy themselves, the last thing on earth you want showing up on Christmas Eve is Clare College Choir singing Bach. Some of those kids you're trying to recruit might show up to hear the concert, and hear that glorious music. Even worse, your potential cannon fodder might see those bright kids their own age, happily singing that glorious music.
Those kids aren't getting fitted for bomb vests--they're studying for their futures.
Now that's dangerous!
To explore more about this insidious threat to Palestinian aspirations, visit them here.
But this episode is a new low, even for these clowns.
The Choir of Clare College Cambridge made plans to tour Israel this December with the Israel Camerata, presenting Bach's Christmas Oratorio in both Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
How completely horrible and unacceptable! University students singing Christmas music in (OMG!!!)...Bethlehem!
Some Palestinian groups raised a stink, so the Bethlehem concert was cancelled.
So what's so threatening to the Palestinians if Clare College Choir(one of the finest choral organizations in the world) sings the Christmas Oratorio in Palestinian territory?
Well, think about it. If you are running a government that specializes in creating and then idolizing suicide bombers, recruiting young people to destroy themselves, the last thing on earth you want showing up on Christmas Eve is Clare College Choir singing Bach. Some of those kids you're trying to recruit might show up to hear the concert, and hear that glorious music. Even worse, your potential cannon fodder might see those bright kids their own age, happily singing that glorious music.
Those kids aren't getting fitted for bomb vests--they're studying for their futures.
Now that's dangerous!
To explore more about this insidious threat to Palestinian aspirations, visit them here.
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