It's such a common practice in the popular media, both entertainment and 'news'--the portrayal of Texans as rubes, fools, rednecks, sadists, hicks, farmers and ranchers with IQ's no higher than the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. It's so common we simply become innured to it, and quietly assume it must be true, because after all it's 'common knowledge'. California, on the other hand, is the epitome of all that is cool, forward-thinking and praiseworthy.
Movies such as 'Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' and the remake of 'The Man Who Loved Women'(with Julie Andrews and Burt Reynolds, back in their day), provide particularly funny skewering of Texas life. Chuck Norris did the state no favors with stilted productions of his TV series set in the state. Add in clowns like Jerry Johnson, eccentrics like Willie Nelson, stir gently.
OS has visited the place a few times over the years, and one of his best friends is a proud Texan transplanted to points north. These people are different, to be certain, but they are no fools. Anyone notice that there is an ongoing migration of population of businesses and people from California to Texas? Might that say something about life in those two states?
So, this little gem from Bloomberg today was not surprising.
Dallas hedge-fund manager J. Kyle Bass helped advise the University of Texas Investment Management Co. on taking delivery of 6,643 gold bars, worth $987 million on April 15, now stored in a bank warehouse in New York.
Bass, who made $500 million with 2006 bets on a U.S. subprime-mortgage market collapse, said managers of the endowment, known as UTIMCO, sought board approval to convert its gold investments into bullion this year. A board member, Bass, 41, said he was asked to help with that process.
While Bass, a managing partner at Hayman Capital Management LP, said in an April 16 e-mail that “the decision to purchase and take delivery of the physical gold” was made by endowment staff members, “I helped where I could.” Gold futures touched a record $1,489.10 an ounce April 15 in New York before closing at $1,486.
There's all sorts of paper floating about, putatively backed by physical gold. Both the gold and silver markets have become massive shell games, because there isn't even a fraction of the metal needed to deliver to all the customers who could demand delivery. So, UTIMCO decided it was time to pick the chips off the table and leave the game. They demanded and took delivery last Friday, in physical gold.
It's theirs, and no one else's.
Wonder what happens when another twenty or so similar funds decide to follow suit? Rather like a deadly game of musical chairs: twenty players, nineteen chairs, and when the music stops, someone ends up on the floor. Repeat--nineteen players, eighteen chairs.
This could get ugly, unless you're the board of UTIMCO. Yep, them folks is just a bunch of rubes and rednecks, so don't pay them no attention....
Moral of the tale: Don't mess with Texas. (And take delivery while you can...)
(Disclosure--long gold and silver--in self defense, 'cuz the money printing will eat us all up before too long.)
Monday, April 18, 2011
Philadelphia Orchestra Files For Bankruptcy, Detroit Symphony Resumes Its Season
The contrast between the situations is evident--utter acrimony in Detroit and a classy sense of heartbreak in Philly.
The letter from the Philadelphia Orchestra management is here.
We are writing to inform you that despite the incredible artistry of the musicians of The Philadelphia Orchestra and their diligence and hard work as collaborative partners, the Board of The Philadelphia Orchestra Association has made the difficult decision to file for Chapter 11 protection. Our financial situation is serious and the simple facts are these:
- Our operating funds are rapidly dwindling and will be exhausted by June 2011.
- While the Orchestra does not have any debt, we are operating at a significant loss with a structural deficit of $14.5 million.
Let us assure you, first and foremost, that our concerts will go on as scheduled, including this evening’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Indeed, the music plays on!
Yet, let us be frank about the myriad factors contributing to the financial challenges we face. Our structural deficit has been created by a decline in ticket revenues, decreased donations, eroding endowment income, pension obligations, contractual agreements, and operational costs. Our beloved musicians made multiple generous concessions during the collective bargaining negotiations. Our Board donated more than $9.5 million above and beyond annual giving. And our professional staff was both reduced and agreed to pay cuts. These proactive and important steps were simply not enough to solve all of the issues we face.
We are now on the front end of a great readjustment in the culture, long overdue in reality.
This organization will likely rise from the dead, stronger than ever, and deserves to.
Hopefully, other organizations in the not-for-profit world, that do so much to define and enrich our culture, will take a cue from this letter.
Meanwhile, back in Detroit....how not to go through the readjustment.
The letter from the Philadelphia Orchestra management is here.
We are writing to inform you that despite the incredible artistry of the musicians of The Philadelphia Orchestra and their diligence and hard work as collaborative partners, the Board of The Philadelphia Orchestra Association has made the difficult decision to file for Chapter 11 protection. Our financial situation is serious and the simple facts are these:
- Our operating funds are rapidly dwindling and will be exhausted by June 2011.
- While the Orchestra does not have any debt, we are operating at a significant loss with a structural deficit of $14.5 million.
Let us assure you, first and foremost, that our concerts will go on as scheduled, including this evening’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Indeed, the music plays on!
Yet, let us be frank about the myriad factors contributing to the financial challenges we face. Our structural deficit has been created by a decline in ticket revenues, decreased donations, eroding endowment income, pension obligations, contractual agreements, and operational costs. Our beloved musicians made multiple generous concessions during the collective bargaining negotiations. Our Board donated more than $9.5 million above and beyond annual giving. And our professional staff was both reduced and agreed to pay cuts. These proactive and important steps were simply not enough to solve all of the issues we face.
We are now on the front end of a great readjustment in the culture, long overdue in reality.
This organization will likely rise from the dead, stronger than ever, and deserves to.
Hopefully, other organizations in the not-for-profit world, that do so much to define and enrich our culture, will take a cue from this letter.
Meanwhile, back in Detroit....how not to go through the readjustment.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Step Ten Begins For Detroit Public Schools: Layoff Notice Sent To Every Teacher
The NEA sent the announcement around to the constituency today, without the usual flood of leftist invective. It's as if, finally, reality is beginning to set in. The Stimulus kept Detroit schools afloat one final year, likely in the attempt to buy enough votes in 2010 to keep the Congress in Democrat hands, or hoping that the economy would rise from the dead after decades of decline.
Neither happened. Even Himself is making appropriate noises in public about reducing spending, even if he obviously means not a word of it. In any case, there will be no no Stimulus Part Two. Not even on the radar.
Detroit has fallen to its population of 1910. The public school system is unsustainable in its present form, and no amount of invective will change that. It isn't that DoseWascawyRepubwikans can be blamed, since Detroit has been in the hands of the Democrats for decades. They ran the city and school system both. Into the ground, as it turns out.
So, Reuters reports:
The emergency manager appointed to put Detroit's troubled public school system on a firmer financial footing said on Thursday he was sending layoff notices to all of the district's 5,466 unionized employees.
In a statement posted on the website of Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb, the district's temporary head, said notices were being sent to every member of the Detroit Federation of Teachers "in anticipation of a workforce reduction to match the district's declining student enrollment."
Bobb said nearly 250 administrators were receiving the notices, too.
The district is unlikely to eliminate all the teachers. Last year, it sent out 2,000 notices and only a fraction of employees were actually laid off. But the notices are required by the union's current contract with the district. Any layoffs under this latest action won't take effect until late July.
In the meantime, Bobb said that he planned to exercise his power as emergency manager to unilaterally modify the district's collective bargaining agreement with the Federation of Teachers starting May 17, 2011.
Under a law known as Public Act 4, passed by the Michigan legislature and signed by the state's new Republican governor in March, emergency managers like Bobb have sweeping powers. They can tear up existing union contracts, and even fire some elected officials, if they believe it will help solve a financial emergency.
"I fully intend to use the authority that was granted under Public Act 4," Bobb said in the statement.
A quick search about Public Act 4 leads one to the State of Michigan website, with a summary of the law--twelve steps involved (irony not lost upon us...), and we pick up toward the end:
Step Nine: If the Governor confirms the determination of a financial emergency, the Governor is required to declare the unit of local government in receivership and appoint an Emergency Manager who serves at the pleasure of the Governor.
Step Ten: Upon being placed in receivership, the governing body and chief administrative officer of the unit of local government are prohibited from exercising any of their powers of offices without written approval of the Emergency Manager, and their compensation and benefits are eliminated.
Step Eleven: Within 45 days of appointment, an Emergency Manager must develop a written financial and operating plan.
In addition to other powers, an Emergency Manager may reject, modify, or terminate collective bargaining agreements, recommend consolidation or dissolution of units of local government, and recommend bankruptcy proceedings.
Step Twelve: A unit of local government is removed from receivership when the financial conditions which were the basis for the underlying financial emergency are corrected in a sustainable fashion as determined by the State Treasurer in accordance with the Act.
Detroit Public Schools are at Step Ten. No amount of name calling, marching on the capitol, striking, work slowdowns, ballot-box stuffing, voting the dead, voting the illegal aliens, voting the felons, race-baiting, or any of the standard repertoire of The Left changes the fact that Detroit has shrunk dramatically in size from its once great status. The can was kicked so far down the road, for so long, that Detroit ran out of road.
By the way, the layoffs begin in Wisconsin next Friday, as promised by Governor Walker earlier this year.
Neither happened. Even Himself is making appropriate noises in public about reducing spending, even if he obviously means not a word of it. In any case, there will be no no Stimulus Part Two. Not even on the radar.
Detroit has fallen to its population of 1910. The public school system is unsustainable in its present form, and no amount of invective will change that. It isn't that DoseWascawyRepubwikans can be blamed, since Detroit has been in the hands of the Democrats for decades. They ran the city and school system both. Into the ground, as it turns out.
So, Reuters reports:
The emergency manager appointed to put Detroit's troubled public school system on a firmer financial footing said on Thursday he was sending layoff notices to all of the district's 5,466 unionized employees.
In a statement posted on the website of Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb, the district's temporary head, said notices were being sent to every member of the Detroit Federation of Teachers "in anticipation of a workforce reduction to match the district's declining student enrollment."
Bobb said nearly 250 administrators were receiving the notices, too.
The district is unlikely to eliminate all the teachers. Last year, it sent out 2,000 notices and only a fraction of employees were actually laid off. But the notices are required by the union's current contract with the district. Any layoffs under this latest action won't take effect until late July.
In the meantime, Bobb said that he planned to exercise his power as emergency manager to unilaterally modify the district's collective bargaining agreement with the Federation of Teachers starting May 17, 2011.
Under a law known as Public Act 4, passed by the Michigan legislature and signed by the state's new Republican governor in March, emergency managers like Bobb have sweeping powers. They can tear up existing union contracts, and even fire some elected officials, if they believe it will help solve a financial emergency.
"I fully intend to use the authority that was granted under Public Act 4," Bobb said in the statement.
A quick search about Public Act 4 leads one to the State of Michigan website, with a summary of the law--twelve steps involved (irony not lost upon us...), and we pick up toward the end:
Step Nine: If the Governor confirms the determination of a financial emergency, the Governor is required to declare the unit of local government in receivership and appoint an Emergency Manager who serves at the pleasure of the Governor.
Step Ten: Upon being placed in receivership, the governing body and chief administrative officer of the unit of local government are prohibited from exercising any of their powers of offices without written approval of the Emergency Manager, and their compensation and benefits are eliminated.
Step Eleven: Within 45 days of appointment, an Emergency Manager must develop a written financial and operating plan.
In addition to other powers, an Emergency Manager may reject, modify, or terminate collective bargaining agreements, recommend consolidation or dissolution of units of local government, and recommend bankruptcy proceedings.
Step Twelve: A unit of local government is removed from receivership when the financial conditions which were the basis for the underlying financial emergency are corrected in a sustainable fashion as determined by the State Treasurer in accordance with the Act.
Detroit Public Schools are at Step Ten. No amount of name calling, marching on the capitol, striking, work slowdowns, ballot-box stuffing, voting the dead, voting the illegal aliens, voting the felons, race-baiting, or any of the standard repertoire of The Left changes the fact that Detroit has shrunk dramatically in size from its once great status. The can was kicked so far down the road, for so long, that Detroit ran out of road.
By the way, the layoffs begin in Wisconsin next Friday, as promised by Governor Walker earlier this year.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Chevron CEO John Watson Cuts Through Obama's Crap: WSJ Weekend
The interview is here.
There is a set of unarguable verities shared by The Left. As soon as someone dares suggest those verities aren't, well, true, the serious name-calling begins.
One is: Israel Bad/Hamas Good
Then there's: There really is no problem with gubbermint borrowing 41 cents of every dollar we spend. There is an endless supply, obtained either by printing or taxation. To suggest spending even a nickel less is to advocate throwing Grandma and her walker under the bus.
And one of Himself's favorites: We gonnah' shut them big-bad ohl cumpaneez down, and run the kuntry on wind power, solar power and biofuels. We don't need no ohl, 'cuz it kills them cute liddle poler bearz.
Finally, a head of an oil company willing to push back, politely, with the truth.
There is no oil shortage in America. There is a shortage of brains and common sense among our political class, which regularly leads us back to $4 and $5 gasoline and diesel. Which, oddly enough, people like Obama and Reid think is somehow wonderful.
Enter the tall, bespectacled Mr. Watson, who a little more than a year ago stepped into the shoes of longtime CEO David O'Reilly. An economist by training, soft-spoken by nature, the 53-year-old Mr. Watson is hardly some swaggering wildcatter. Yet in a year of speeches, he has emerged as one of the industry's foremost energy realists. No "Beyond Petroleum" (BP) for him. On energy, he says, America "has a lot to learn."
Starting with the argument—so popular among greens and Democrats—that we are running out of oil. "Peak oil"—the theory that global oil production will soon hit maximum levels and begin to decline—is a favorite among this crowd, and it is one basis for their call for more biofuels and solar power. Mr. Watson doesn't dismiss the idea but explains why it remains largely irrelevant.
In theory, he says, "we've been running out of oil and gas for a long time," yet technology creates new opportunities. Mr. Watson cites a Chevron field long in decline down the road in Bakersfield—to the point that for every 100 barrels of oil "in place," the company was extracting only 10 or 20. But thanks to a new technology called steam flooding, Chevron is now getting 70 to 80 barrels. "Price creates incentive, and energy will be developed if there's demand for it at the price you can develop it," Mr. Watson says. In that sense, "oil and gas are plentiful."
Don't believe it? Over the past 30 years, even as "peak oil" was a trendy theme, the world's proven reserves of oil and natural gas increased 130%, to 2.5 trillion barrels.
And that little lie about 'alternative energy'? Well, it's...a lie.
Mr. Watson has little time for the Beltway fiction that America will soon be able to do without, or nearly without, fossil fuels. Yes, "we need all forms of energy." But the world consumes 250 million barrels of energy equivalent today, only a "tiny fraction of which" is wind and solar—and even those "are not affordable at scale," he says.
As for biofuels, "we would need to consume land the size of states" to hit the country's current ethanol targets. Chevron is investigating biofuels, but Mr. Watson says the "economics aren't there" yet. Unlike many CEOs, Mr. Watson insists on products that can prosper without federal subsidies, which he believes are costly and lacking in transparency when "consumer pockets are tight, government pockets are tight."
Bottom line: "We're going to need oil and gas and coal for a long time if America wants to keep the lights on."
Then there's deep-water drilling, the BoogeyMan of The Left:
But what about the BP Gulf spill? Mr. Watson blames the "cultural aspects and behavioral aspects" of the particular drilling rig that exploded. He roundly disagrees with the finding of Mr. Obama's spill commission that the "root causes" of the spill were "systemic" to the industry.
"There is no evidence to support that. I don't know how that conclusion was reached. I know the industry has drilled 14,000 deep water wells without having this sort of problem." As for the moratorium, "I can understand taking a pause. I can't understand shutting down a whole industry for a better part of a year."
OS can--Obama and company want to kill it off, and to punish the states that didn't knuckle under and vote for him last time. That one doesn't require an MIT degree to discern. But, then again, Mr. Watson is a gentleman, and isn't obligated to share the entire contents of his mind with an interviewer.
It's a refreshing read. It needs to be shared far and wide.
There is a set of unarguable verities shared by The Left. As soon as someone dares suggest those verities aren't, well, true, the serious name-calling begins.
One is: Israel Bad/Hamas Good
Then there's: There really is no problem with gubbermint borrowing 41 cents of every dollar we spend. There is an endless supply, obtained either by printing or taxation. To suggest spending even a nickel less is to advocate throwing Grandma and her walker under the bus.
And one of Himself's favorites: We gonnah' shut them big-bad ohl cumpaneez down, and run the kuntry on wind power, solar power and biofuels. We don't need no ohl, 'cuz it kills them cute liddle poler bearz.
Finally, a head of an oil company willing to push back, politely, with the truth.
There is no oil shortage in America. There is a shortage of brains and common sense among our political class, which regularly leads us back to $4 and $5 gasoline and diesel. Which, oddly enough, people like Obama and Reid think is somehow wonderful.
Enter the tall, bespectacled Mr. Watson, who a little more than a year ago stepped into the shoes of longtime CEO David O'Reilly. An economist by training, soft-spoken by nature, the 53-year-old Mr. Watson is hardly some swaggering wildcatter. Yet in a year of speeches, he has emerged as one of the industry's foremost energy realists. No "Beyond Petroleum" (BP) for him. On energy, he says, America "has a lot to learn."
Starting with the argument—so popular among greens and Democrats—that we are running out of oil. "Peak oil"—the theory that global oil production will soon hit maximum levels and begin to decline—is a favorite among this crowd, and it is one basis for their call for more biofuels and solar power. Mr. Watson doesn't dismiss the idea but explains why it remains largely irrelevant.
In theory, he says, "we've been running out of oil and gas for a long time," yet technology creates new opportunities. Mr. Watson cites a Chevron field long in decline down the road in Bakersfield—to the point that for every 100 barrels of oil "in place," the company was extracting only 10 or 20. But thanks to a new technology called steam flooding, Chevron is now getting 70 to 80 barrels. "Price creates incentive, and energy will be developed if there's demand for it at the price you can develop it," Mr. Watson says. In that sense, "oil and gas are plentiful."
Don't believe it? Over the past 30 years, even as "peak oil" was a trendy theme, the world's proven reserves of oil and natural gas increased 130%, to 2.5 trillion barrels.
And that little lie about 'alternative energy'? Well, it's...a lie.
Mr. Watson has little time for the Beltway fiction that America will soon be able to do without, or nearly without, fossil fuels. Yes, "we need all forms of energy." But the world consumes 250 million barrels of energy equivalent today, only a "tiny fraction of which" is wind and solar—and even those "are not affordable at scale," he says.
As for biofuels, "we would need to consume land the size of states" to hit the country's current ethanol targets. Chevron is investigating biofuels, but Mr. Watson says the "economics aren't there" yet. Unlike many CEOs, Mr. Watson insists on products that can prosper without federal subsidies, which he believes are costly and lacking in transparency when "consumer pockets are tight, government pockets are tight."
Bottom line: "We're going to need oil and gas and coal for a long time if America wants to keep the lights on."
Then there's deep-water drilling, the BoogeyMan of The Left:
But what about the BP Gulf spill? Mr. Watson blames the "cultural aspects and behavioral aspects" of the particular drilling rig that exploded. He roundly disagrees with the finding of Mr. Obama's spill commission that the "root causes" of the spill were "systemic" to the industry.
"There is no evidence to support that. I don't know how that conclusion was reached. I know the industry has drilled 14,000 deep water wells without having this sort of problem." As for the moratorium, "I can understand taking a pause. I can't understand shutting down a whole industry for a better part of a year."
OS can--Obama and company want to kill it off, and to punish the states that didn't knuckle under and vote for him last time. That one doesn't require an MIT degree to discern. But, then again, Mr. Watson is a gentleman, and isn't obligated to share the entire contents of his mind with an interviewer.
It's a refreshing read. It needs to be shared far and wide.
Remember The Mantra: Israel Bad/Hamas Good, Israel Bad/Hamas Good,Israel Bad/Hamas Good--(keep going until you believe it...)
GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas found the body Friday of a pro-Palestinian Italian activist who was killed by al Qaeda sympathizers in the Gaza Strip, raising questions about Hamas's control over the beleaguered enclave. Two men were arrested and others were being sought for the abduction and killing of Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, who was found strangled in an abandoned house Friday, Hamas officials said.
A group of strict Islamists aligned with al Qaeda, known as Salafists, had threatened Thursday to execute Arrigoni unless their leader, detained by Hamas last month, was freed.
It was an unprecedented challenge for Hamas, an Islamist group whose diehard hostility to Israel has deepened the isolation and poverty of Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.
"Gaza is safe and I want to assure all visitors to Gaza that they are safe and secure," Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, told a French journalist.
"The crime that took place was an isolated incident ... and we will enforce the law against the perpetrators."
Hamas vehemently opposes the Salafists who espouse a more extreme form of Islam and appear to be attracting recruits -- including from among its own ranks.
Salafists see Hamas as insufficiently zealous, have attacked Internet cafes and want Christians expelled. They deplore Hamas for considering ceasefires with Israel and exploring political accommodation with secular Palestinian rivals.
And, from Donald Sensing, a story with video just too horrifying to describe...
A group of strict Islamists aligned with al Qaeda, known as Salafists, had threatened Thursday to execute Arrigoni unless their leader, detained by Hamas last month, was freed.
It was an unprecedented challenge for Hamas, an Islamist group whose diehard hostility to Israel has deepened the isolation and poverty of Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.
"Gaza is safe and I want to assure all visitors to Gaza that they are safe and secure," Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, told a French journalist.
"The crime that took place was an isolated incident ... and we will enforce the law against the perpetrators."
Hamas vehemently opposes the Salafists who espouse a more extreme form of Islam and appear to be attracting recruits -- including from among its own ranks.
Salafists see Hamas as insufficiently zealous, have attacked Internet cafes and want Christians expelled. They deplore Hamas for considering ceasefires with Israel and exploring political accommodation with secular Palestinian rivals.
And, from Donald Sensing, a story with video just too horrifying to describe...
Singing Bach In The Ruins: Easter 1950 Dresden, Easter 2011 Here
A Facebook friend sent along a link to this video a few days ago, and OS has been meditating upon since seeing it. It's a 1950 recording of a German boy named Peter Schreier, singing one of the alto arias from Bach's St. John Passion--Es ist vollbracht--It is finished.
Schreier grew up, and became one of the great tenors of the twentieth century. It's easy to hear the promise in that boy's voice as he sings.
What struck OS most was not just the boy's voice. It was the boy's voice, recorded so beautifully in 1950 Dresden, still in rubble from the British fire-bombing of World War II. It was a miracle he was alive, and that Bach was still being played, sung and recorded in that place that year.
The video is worth viewing for the beauty of the music, and for the photos that pan as the music plays. The most telling is a shot of the boys choir in their cassocks, outside the church, singing in a rubble-filled street. They literally sang Bach amongst the ruins of one of the world's great cities. They kept showing up, despite the devastation around them, and the losses they had suffered, to sing Bach in church.
OS has friends who recently visited Dresden and Leipzig, and attended concerts and services in the old Lutheran churches. They came back with reports that faith and hope were alive and well in those buildings, in contrast to the weary cynicism encountered in The West.
Easter approaches, and OS wishes his readers a blessed one. We live in much more comfort, most of us, than those children in Dresden, but to hold to a Christian faith here increasingly means singing in the ruins of a culture that decided to self-destruct.
The message is--It is finished. Evil cannot possibly win in the end, because death itself has been conquered. And we will not always sing in the ruins. There is a day and time appointed when all will be set right.
Until then, though, we sing.
Lyrics:
Es ist vollbracht!
O Trost vor die gekränkten Seelen!
Die Trauernacht
Läßt nun die letzte Stunde zählen.
Der Held aus Juda siegt mit Macht
und schließt den Kampf.
Es ist vollbracht!
Translation:
It is fulfilled!
O hope for ev'ry ailing spirit!
The night of grief
Is now its final hours counting.
The man of Judah wins with might
And ends the fight.
It is fulfilled!
Schreier grew up, and became one of the great tenors of the twentieth century. It's easy to hear the promise in that boy's voice as he sings.
What struck OS most was not just the boy's voice. It was the boy's voice, recorded so beautifully in 1950 Dresden, still in rubble from the British fire-bombing of World War II. It was a miracle he was alive, and that Bach was still being played, sung and recorded in that place that year.
The video is worth viewing for the beauty of the music, and for the photos that pan as the music plays. The most telling is a shot of the boys choir in their cassocks, outside the church, singing in a rubble-filled street. They literally sang Bach amongst the ruins of one of the world's great cities. They kept showing up, despite the devastation around them, and the losses they had suffered, to sing Bach in church.
OS has friends who recently visited Dresden and Leipzig, and attended concerts and services in the old Lutheran churches. They came back with reports that faith and hope were alive and well in those buildings, in contrast to the weary cynicism encountered in The West.
Easter approaches, and OS wishes his readers a blessed one. We live in much more comfort, most of us, than those children in Dresden, but to hold to a Christian faith here increasingly means singing in the ruins of a culture that decided to self-destruct.
The message is--It is finished. Evil cannot possibly win in the end, because death itself has been conquered. And we will not always sing in the ruins. There is a day and time appointed when all will be set right.
Until then, though, we sing.
Lyrics:
Es ist vollbracht!
O Trost vor die gekränkten Seelen!
Die Trauernacht
Läßt nun die letzte Stunde zählen.
Der Held aus Juda siegt mit Macht
und schließt den Kampf.
Es ist vollbracht!
Translation:
It is fulfilled!
O hope for ev'ry ailing spirit!
The night of grief
Is now its final hours counting.
The man of Judah wins with might
And ends the fight.
It is fulfilled!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Interlude, 13 April 2011: Musings On The Meaning Of Four-Dollar Gas
OldSouth hasn't had time or energy to gather many thoughts of late--working pedal-to-the-metal, with a seemingly endless pile of tasks to accomplish in the coming six to eight weeks. It's one of 'those times', everyone goes through them.
Watching gasoline approach $4.00 the gallon in the US, and aware that we float on a sea of oil and natural gas our own government won't allow to be extracted and refined is utterly maddening. Words just fail, except to say that we are now entering about our fortieth year of willful blindness. We have waged two out-and-out wars with Iraq, started another in Libya, have had the fleet all over the Strait of Hormuz, the Med, the Indian Ocean, and everyone armed to the teeth there since about 1970 at least. Then there's Israel, who have located their own domestic sources of petroleum. Bet it won't be much of a debate about extracting and refining their own oil!
How many people have we gotten killed because we won't follow the obvious wise course?
How much treasure has been expended? How many dictators propped up?
How many jobs lost and careers curtailed because of the booms and busts that fuel price rises and falls create?
It's incalculable, but it's real. We've become so numb to it, we forget that it's an insane way to live.
We keep making stupid cultural decisions, whose consequences show up later when industries melt down.
This one is a no-brainer. Let's drill, dig, build refineries, reactors (ooh, he said the 'R' word) not constructed on major seismic faults, dams with hydro generators, coal-fired generators, gas pipelines, and anything else we can think of that will keep the lights on and the economy on the road. Let's do it now.
Let's get this done.
Watching gasoline approach $4.00 the gallon in the US, and aware that we float on a sea of oil and natural gas our own government won't allow to be extracted and refined is utterly maddening. Words just fail, except to say that we are now entering about our fortieth year of willful blindness. We have waged two out-and-out wars with Iraq, started another in Libya, have had the fleet all over the Strait of Hormuz, the Med, the Indian Ocean, and everyone armed to the teeth there since about 1970 at least. Then there's Israel, who have located their own domestic sources of petroleum. Bet it won't be much of a debate about extracting and refining their own oil!
How many people have we gotten killed because we won't follow the obvious wise course?
How much treasure has been expended? How many dictators propped up?
How many jobs lost and careers curtailed because of the booms and busts that fuel price rises and falls create?
It's incalculable, but it's real. We've become so numb to it, we forget that it's an insane way to live.
We keep making stupid cultural decisions, whose consequences show up later when industries melt down.
This one is a no-brainer. Let's drill, dig, build refineries, reactors (ooh, he said the 'R' word) not constructed on major seismic faults, dams with hydro generators, coal-fired generators, gas pipelines, and anything else we can think of that will keep the lights on and the economy on the road. Let's do it now.
Let's get this done.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Simon Johnson: Private Gain, Public Loss--The Real Cost Of Too-Big-To-Fail
Simon Johnson is one of those rare economists who knows how to talk about economics in Plain English. He has a breathtakingly strong resume. He does not have any particular political axe to grind. And he pulls no punches. He draws the line of direct relationship between the reckless bankers, the complicit governments, and the miseries created by both on the ground around the world.
OS just encountered this recent address of Johnson, and it is well worth a few minutes spent viewing. He points out, for instance, that Citigroup has blown up three times in the past thirty years, each time rescued by the public sector in one way or another.
Johnson really gets going in his summation at about the 8:00 mark.
OS just encountered this recent address of Johnson, and it is well worth a few minutes spent viewing. He points out, for instance, that Citigroup has blown up three times in the past thirty years, each time rescued by the public sector in one way or another.
Johnson really gets going in his summation at about the 8:00 mark.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Iceland Stands Tall--Banks And Depositors Must Bear Risks, Not The Taxpayers
Good for them!
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Icelandic voters appeared Sunday to have rejected a government-approved deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands $5 billion for their citizens' deposits in the failed online bank Icesave.
Partial results of a national referendum suggested the "no" side had gained more than half the votes -- a reflection of enduring anger over the economic havoc wrought by Iceland's risk-taking bankers.
Full results were not due until later Sunday. With partial results in from all six of Iceland's constituencies, the no side had almost 57 percent of the votes and the yes camp just over 43 percent.
"This is of course a disappointing result," said Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir.
'...a disappointing result...'--but for whom?
The day is long overdue when the idea of 'risk' should be reintroduced to bankers, depositors, and borrowers. There is always the possibility that things might go wrong, since Murphy and his law are alive and well.
There is also the idea of 'moral hazard'. Lay the risk off to third parties, and an individual is allowed to behave recklessly. (Sound familiar?)
Here's a more formal definition:
Moral hazard arises because an individual or institution does not take the full consequences and responsibilities of its actions, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it otherwise would, leaving another party to hold some responsibility for the consequences of those actions.
In this case, British and Dutch savers had lost money when IceSave bank collapsed. Their own governments made them whole (because?), and attempted to stick the Icelandic taxpayer with the bill, threatening retaliation via the EU. Given the chaos created by the Euro, exclusion from that clown circus should be a blessing.
Next on the task list: Send the Prime Minister packing, along with the geniuses who put the country through the referendum in the first place. A few prosecutions of the bankers responsible might also prove invigorating for the health of the economy in general. It's good for everyone, top to bottom, to understand the concept of risk and the dangers of moral hazard.
Here's hoping the Irish take heart, and demand their bailout terms and EU participation be put to a vote.
OS likes fish. He'll be shopping for Icelandic cod this week...
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Icelandic voters appeared Sunday to have rejected a government-approved deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands $5 billion for their citizens' deposits in the failed online bank Icesave.
Partial results of a national referendum suggested the "no" side had gained more than half the votes -- a reflection of enduring anger over the economic havoc wrought by Iceland's risk-taking bankers.
Full results were not due until later Sunday. With partial results in from all six of Iceland's constituencies, the no side had almost 57 percent of the votes and the yes camp just over 43 percent.
"This is of course a disappointing result," said Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir.
'...a disappointing result...'--but for whom?
The day is long overdue when the idea of 'risk' should be reintroduced to bankers, depositors, and borrowers. There is always the possibility that things might go wrong, since Murphy and his law are alive and well.
There is also the idea of 'moral hazard'. Lay the risk off to third parties, and an individual is allowed to behave recklessly. (Sound familiar?)
Here's a more formal definition:
Moral hazard arises because an individual or institution does not take the full consequences and responsibilities of its actions, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it otherwise would, leaving another party to hold some responsibility for the consequences of those actions.
In this case, British and Dutch savers had lost money when IceSave bank collapsed. Their own governments made them whole (because?), and attempted to stick the Icelandic taxpayer with the bill, threatening retaliation via the EU. Given the chaos created by the Euro, exclusion from that clown circus should be a blessing.
Next on the task list: Send the Prime Minister packing, along with the geniuses who put the country through the referendum in the first place. A few prosecutions of the bankers responsible might also prove invigorating for the health of the economy in general. It's good for everyone, top to bottom, to understand the concept of risk and the dangers of moral hazard.
Here's hoping the Irish take heart, and demand their bailout terms and EU participation be put to a vote.
OS likes fish. He'll be shopping for Icelandic cod this week...
An Utter Miscarriage Of Justice: Harry Connick Nearly Gets Away With Judicial Murder, And John Thompson, His Victim, Is Denied Compensation
This story sort of floated to the surface and vanished in the furor of events in North Africa, and the soap opera staged this week by the children who inhabit elected office in Washington.
Long story short, District Attorney Harry Connick's office deliberately railroaded an innocent man toward the electric chair, both by misuse of the legal process and the witholding of exculpatory evidence.
John Thompson, his victim, tells his story at the link. The Supreme Court threw out his lawsuit (won in lower courts) for 18 million dollars, one million for every year Connick's office stole from his life; 18 years in Angola prison, Louisiana, many of them spent on death row.
OS thinks we best pay attention. It was only by the extraordinary pro-bono efforts of a law firm that Thompson is alive to tell his story. It is why OS is so very uncomfortable with the death penalty. He has been around too many lawyers in his lifetime. He has rubbed elbows with respectable attorneys, gents who sit on boards and teach Sunday School, who would gladly see an innocent person put to death, just so long as the case was won, the career advanced, and the tee time not delayed in the process.
The case of the Duke students wrongly accused of rape was chilling as well. In this case, though, the families of the boys had the resources to fight back. The case fell apart before ever making it to trial. DA Nifong ended up disbarred, discredited, filing for bankruptcy. Further lawsuits are still in litigation, and Duke paid a high price in cash payouts, loss of reputation, and more. Here's hoping the bleeding continues, until a sense of appropriate caution descends upon the institution and its faculty.
(Would any sane mother send her son to Duke, aware that most of that school's administration and faculty are still in place? Would any sane person move to Durham, knowing the investigators, and assistant DA's are still in circulation?)
In this case, the stakes were so much higher, and Thompson did not have those resources. How many more innocents has Connick killed or sent to Angola to live out their days? We'll not likely know, but we do know that of 30 allegations of prosecutorial misconduct brought against Connick, 19 acquittals have resulted.
Hmmm...
Juries are supposed to be the counterweight to prosecutors. But if juries are misled by prosecutors, that safeguard goes away. It is obvious that this conviction was deliberately, fraudulently obtained, with the death of the defendant as the outcome sought. Isn't that a definition of conspiracy to murder, even attempted murder? Why shouldn't the prosecutors, police and judges be required to put their law licenses, careers, wealth and houses on the line when they prosecute felonies, especially death penalty cases?
Would it not encourage a certain sobriety?
Again, OS repeats: It is very common to create a highly educated, effective, literate, articulate adult who can take the bar exam, without ever taking care to ensure a conscience takes hold. Such a person can hold public office. He can get innocent people killed, one-by-one in the case of Mr. Connick, or by the boxcar load in the case of a Himmler.
The Supreme Court (Ivy League lawyers all...) failed to see, once again, what happens to small people ground under by a large government.
More detailed analysis from Atlantic Magazine here.
Long story short, District Attorney Harry Connick's office deliberately railroaded an innocent man toward the electric chair, both by misuse of the legal process and the witholding of exculpatory evidence.
John Thompson, his victim, tells his story at the link. The Supreme Court threw out his lawsuit (won in lower courts) for 18 million dollars, one million for every year Connick's office stole from his life; 18 years in Angola prison, Louisiana, many of them spent on death row.
OS thinks we best pay attention. It was only by the extraordinary pro-bono efforts of a law firm that Thompson is alive to tell his story. It is why OS is so very uncomfortable with the death penalty. He has been around too many lawyers in his lifetime. He has rubbed elbows with respectable attorneys, gents who sit on boards and teach Sunday School, who would gladly see an innocent person put to death, just so long as the case was won, the career advanced, and the tee time not delayed in the process.
The case of the Duke students wrongly accused of rape was chilling as well. In this case, though, the families of the boys had the resources to fight back. The case fell apart before ever making it to trial. DA Nifong ended up disbarred, discredited, filing for bankruptcy. Further lawsuits are still in litigation, and Duke paid a high price in cash payouts, loss of reputation, and more. Here's hoping the bleeding continues, until a sense of appropriate caution descends upon the institution and its faculty.
(Would any sane mother send her son to Duke, aware that most of that school's administration and faculty are still in place? Would any sane person move to Durham, knowing the investigators, and assistant DA's are still in circulation?)
In this case, the stakes were so much higher, and Thompson did not have those resources. How many more innocents has Connick killed or sent to Angola to live out their days? We'll not likely know, but we do know that of 30 allegations of prosecutorial misconduct brought against Connick, 19 acquittals have resulted.
Hmmm...
Juries are supposed to be the counterweight to prosecutors. But if juries are misled by prosecutors, that safeguard goes away. It is obvious that this conviction was deliberately, fraudulently obtained, with the death of the defendant as the outcome sought. Isn't that a definition of conspiracy to murder, even attempted murder? Why shouldn't the prosecutors, police and judges be required to put their law licenses, careers, wealth and houses on the line when they prosecute felonies, especially death penalty cases?
Would it not encourage a certain sobriety?
Again, OS repeats: It is very common to create a highly educated, effective, literate, articulate adult who can take the bar exam, without ever taking care to ensure a conscience takes hold. Such a person can hold public office. He can get innocent people killed, one-by-one in the case of Mr. Connick, or by the boxcar load in the case of a Himmler.
The Supreme Court (Ivy League lawyers all...) failed to see, once again, what happens to small people ground under by a large government.
More detailed analysis from Atlantic Magazine here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)