CA vs. TX on Environmental Issue...

Water:

A national research and lobbying group has ranked Sacramento's tap water as the best inCalifornia and 18th-best in the nation.

Taking first place was Arlington, Texas. Texas placed four cities in the top 12.

----

Better schools, better water, lower taxes.

Now, if they only had better Mexican food....

North Korea

Shit is happening in North Korea. People are bitching about a currency change there.

But the important added factor is that Kim Jong-Il is sick or was sick.

I've listened to some podcasts with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, author of The Logic of Political Survival, and one of his most convincing arguments is that once the dictator gets sick enough, all of the competing factions get very antsy and this is when coups, revolutions, etc. most often happen.

So, we may see some exciting changes in North Korea.

On a personal note, I would not be happy to see any changes until I get to make a visit to this Stalinist Disneyland that time forgot, but that chance is receding so I guess freedom for a few million people would be a decent consolation prize.

How bad is California's situation?

Its now the measuring stick on how to judge other state collapses.

10 States Hurtling Toward Califonia-Level Disaster

I will have to research Idaho

That's maybe better than the Texas heat, and the skeeters.

NCES Stats

8th grade Math 4th Grade Math

CA: 46th 48th

TX: 15th 20th

8th Grade Reading 4th Grade Reading

CA: 49th 49th

TX: 32nd 32nd

So I am not seeing much good news for CA in these stats. Its a bit frightening, in fact.

One of the great selling points for "high-tax, high-service" government would be that you could leave a lot of the burdens of life on auto-pilot. National healthcare means you are covered from a major life worry. Bank insurance means you don't have to shop for a bank that's safe. Excellent schools means you don't have to endlessly research schooling options.

When it fails it means you have the worst of both worlds: high taxes (plus entrenched, unionized bureaucracies!) with poor outcomes that make the average taxpayer again be in charge of their life - searching for private schools, charter schools, or conniving to get their kid into the one or two decent schools in the district. Or simply moving to another state.

Bye Bye Bank of America

After confirming that I have to pay 5 bucks a month for a savings account unless I keep a certain amount in it, and 8 bucks a month for checking, I have decided to check out other banks. With essentially a zero percent interest rate, you lose money if you screw up and go below the minimum, which I did twice on the savings account. And there is NO WAY it costs them 5 bucks to maintain an internet savings account.

I already bank with ING Direct, and was going to go with them, but I read about USAA Federal Savings Bank. This bank is affiliated with the US armed forces, but is open to anyone now. (They still ask about any military service but its not a requirement for banking services.)

There are no charges for savings or checking (same with ING Direct.)

There are no charges for using any ATM, (ING Direct only has one network that is free.)

They have a system where you digitally scan checks, and deposit them electronically from your home. (ING Direct does not have this.)

USAA accepts international wire transfers, while ING Direct does not. (This is why I used BofA in the first place.)

Everything else is pretty standard. I will slowly try out USAA and if I end up with issues, go to ING Direct.

p.s. Dave told me he buys Bank Drafts at Bank of Taiwan for like 30 NT and then sends an actual bank draft back to be cashed via snail mail. Cheaper than the US$ 30 wire transfer charge. I may look into this.

Good Value for Money?

Germany has high taxes, but maybe they get excellent services for that money, e.g. superb education, infrastructure, etc.

Now California's state government is hurting for money. Should we raise taxes to pay for all of those excellent services we are getting? Well, let's review where we stand. We shall use Texas as a benchmark, because they are also a large border state. California of course will kick the shit out of Texas.

State Ranking, Taxes per Capita

California: 10th (US$ 2,724.31 per capita)

Texas: 49th (US$ 1,434.16 per capita)

OK –California easily wins, spending much more taxes on critical government services. Its obvious from the data that Texas is a goddamn bastion of cheap-ass small government idiots who chronically underfund public services.

Therefore, according to our hypothesis, California should get much better returns from these investments our tax dollars are funding. Let’s check out education, probably the most important service provided by the State.

State Ranking, Education

California: 47th

Texas: 25th

WTF? Dude, Louisiana and Alabama beat California, and we are just above, shudder, Mississippi.

Well, I am going to guess that Texas somehow skews its money into education and California does not, which would explain this weird result.

Teacher’s Average Salary

California: 1st (US$ 59,825)

Texas: 34th (US$ 41,744)

(Oh, and keep in mind that education ranking included teacher pay as part of its metric – so despite paying the most, which should boost CA’s ranking, the remaining scores still poll it down to 47^th.)

Now, to be fair, we will note that Vermont is #1 in Taxes, #1 in education, and # 19 in teacher’s pay. So the theory that high taxes could deliver high levels of public goods has not been disproven.

What has been shown is that Californians are not getting much “Value for Money” and that we are no Germany on the Pacific. Hell, we are not even a Texas on the Pacific.

Alternative History

In 2001, GTIC a major Chinese financial firm went bankrupt. Here are the ten lessons from this case from the Asian Wall Street Journal. I am only quoting the relevant ones here and apply them to Fannie and Freddie debt held by the Chinese.

No company is too big to fail.

Gitic's bankruptcy refuted the moral hazard fallacy that any Chinese companies would be too big to fail. Even if a company is owned directly by a provincial government, it remains a stand-alone limited liability entity whose debts will not enjoy the full faith and credit of the Chinese government. A loan to such company must be based strictly upon its balance sheet and financial condition, and not upon any implied connection to, or shareholder relationship with, the government. Full faith and credit will be enjoyed only by government bonds and corporate debts that are explicitly guaranteed by the Chinese government.

Since Freddie Mae and Freddy Mac did not have EXPLICIT federal government guarantees, only implicit, we could have simply let the Chinese take a big haircut and pointed them to CITIC bankruptcy 2001 for our reasoning.

Foreign creditors do not have preference.

Previously, when the People's Bank of China closed down insolvent financial institutions, such as China Venturetech Investment Corp., foreign creditors were assured that they would be repaid in full. The PBOC had initially closed down Gitic under similar procedures and with a press announcement that foreign creditors would have priority. But after realizing the full extent of Gitic's debts, the Chinese government decided to apply the PRC Bankruptcy Law, probably as a test case. Under the Bankruptcy Law, all unsecured creditors are treated equally, regardless of whether they are foreign or domestic.

Again, we could have made them take a hair cut along with domestic bond-holders, and pointed to this case. Not saying it would be a great idea, as I have no idea what would have happened after the news was dropped, but its fun to fantasize about making the PRC take a huge loss on their sterilization program. You pays your money and takes your chances when you don't let your currency appreciate and instead ship us products in return for pieces of paper.

Treat Chinese legal opinions with caution.

Gitic's bankruptcy was perhaps most unjust for foreign lenders which had made loans to Gitic's Hong Kong subsidiaries that were guaranteed by Gitic's unincorporated branch in Hong Kong. The lenders had prudently obtained legal opinions from well-known Chinese law firms in Beijing and Guangzhou opining that guarantees made in Hong Kong need not be registered with or approved by SAFE. One of these law firms has since seemingly vanished, leaving no forwarding address or phone number. The lawyer who had signed one of the other opinions has since left his law firm, and when finally reached by phone, has disavowed responsibility for the opinion. Meanwhile, the innocent foreign lenders are left holding legal opinions that are not worth the paper on which they were written.

After we told them about the hair-cut, we close down the offices, turn off the lights, and unplug the phones. Maybe leave a voice mail box so they can yell at us to vent some anger. They do have nukes after all.

Empirical and result-oriented approach to reform.

Since Gitic's bankruptcy, the Chinese government has effectively forbidden any other major Chinese company from going bankrupt. It has also tried to appease the international banking community with offers of more favorable out-of-court restructuring settlements, such as that for the Guangdong Development (Holdings) Ltd. group, in which the Guangdong provincial government voluntarily injected a water plant supplying water to Hong Kong as part of the restructuring.

Hmmmm, I don't get how this jibes with the first lesson "no company is too big to fail." If you forbid bankruptcy, then isn't that saying it is possible to be too big to fail?

Too Big To Fail

The phrase "too big to fail" was actually coined in 1984 during the Continental Illinois bank failure, where, during hearings a senior government official let slip that probably the top 11 banks in America were "too big to fail." Continental Illinois was the 7th largest bank at the time. Shareholders basically wiped out, but bond-holders were bailed out.

The author of the book Too Big to Fail (written in 2004!) made the following comment (paraphrased)

Bondholders can assume that they will be paid in full by the government. So, they stop caring whether the bank they are lending to will be prudent. Thus, risk is under-priced and when something is priced too low, you consume more of it than you might normally, .e.g. the bank actually takes larger risks.

I guess this logic also applies to small creditors like depositors who can rely on FDIC.

So, the perverse incentives for banks would be to be very big, and also have a lot of interconnections, counter-parties, etc. to make sure you are a major systemic risk.

.......

How about restaurants? Do you ever consider going in a restaurant but then have second thoughts based on cleanliness, lack of other customers, chef coughing over my food, etc.? I do.

But I never worry about what the hell my bank is up to behind the scenes. Are they lending my money to goat turd entrepreneurs or itinerant patent trolls? Don't care.

Is this a poor analogy?

Follow Up on AIG

This article from April 2009 says they have wrapped up about 50% of their CDS business but the rest will not be finished until end of 2010, with some even lasting longer.

Another more recent article about AIG is very interesting as well, as they are getting some money back as the financial market improves. Also interesting is the idea that the government could have temporarily guaranteed the collateral rather than bailing out AIG (sort of the same thing, but perhaps with less active ownership.)

From these two articles it appears they are no longer selling CDS just winding down.

Yahoo News / Soviet Supermen

My high school history teacher taught that when the Soviets walked out of the UN, just in time for the UN Security Council to approve the Korean War, it shot down the myth of the Soviet supermen who were just smarter than our dumbass elected leaders. (Admittedly, this would seem to be a low bar to beat.)

Now, I see something similar from China.

China to pursue trade case against US automakers

China to launch investigation that could result in higher tariffs on US autos

Let's review how dumb this move is:

1. In a global recession, you don't want to play around with free trade. Smoot-Hawley

2. China has a huge trade surplus. Is it smart to play tit-for-tat with the USA even if we were mean about some Chinese products? I mean, if you just won all the big hands, you can afford to fold a hand or two. America sells you 9,000 cars a year while you have forced the world's car makers to invest and transfer technology so China can make millions of cars domestically. You can deal with 9,000 foreign made cars.

3. Lead in Toys. Chinese Dry Wall. Melamine in Milk. Melamine in pet food. The Chinese trade image is not so hot. Maybe it would be a good time to lie low on this stuff?

4. 2 US automakers are now owned by our government. You basically just bitch slapped our government, not just two companies. You may want to pass our safety tests and eventually export to the USA - do you think our government is going to look on you favorably now?

5. Did I forget to mention that US car companies are also owned by their Unions who are very politically connected and anti-trade? Jesus, you are asking for China bashing.

6. You just bought Hummer. So now, we can't sell you some piddly 9,000 cars, but you sell everything you want to us, plus buy our companies to ship the tools and dies back to China most likely. Better pray that the news this week is not that Hummer production is moving to China.Unemployed people in America start getting uppity when they think that they are not getting a fair deal.

7. You keep holding your currency down artificially - which is very noticeable compared to say, the Euro. US lawmakers have threatened to add a tax to your exports that would add 30% to the price of your products. Don't tempt them.

Yahoo Headlines

'Crash' director quits Scientology church

In a letter, Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis expresses frustration with the church over gay marriage.

Dude, this is so awesome, combining gay marriage and Scientology.

Wait, so if they allowed gay marriage on Xenu, he would still be in the Church?

Wait, wait, maybe he will form a reformed church of Scientology that allows gay marriage, which will be known as Gay Scientology (oxymoron?)

Tom Cruise. What about Tom Cruise.

Banker's Pay/Bonuses etc. (Boni?????)

I read the Economist every week. The quality has slowly gone downhill and they have drifted a bit away from their liberal roots (old school liberal, that is), but the articles are the perfect length for eating a meal or taking a bathroom break. Yep, its like Reader's Digest except with Britishisms.

But this editorial is spot on and a must read. It explains why "the free market" does not equal "letting banks hand out millions of bonuses after the 2008 melt down." I highly recommend it.

A better alternative would be to claw back the subsidy banks get through being too big to fail. Taxing bonuses is a poor proxy for this. It may be possible to capture it more accurately. Assume that America’s top five investment banks would pay two percentage points more on unsecured borrowings without an implicit guarantee. On that basis the subsidy is $36 billion a year (compared with pay this year of perhaps $120 billion). Providing banks have built up adequate capital, they could face a funding “premium” in much the same way that they already pay premiums for deposit insurance. This would have to be paid before bonuses. Regulators should cap bonuses only to the extent they cause losses which erode capital, but assuming shareholders, including governments, show some spine, pay would be squeezed at profitable banks. If some traders left weaker banks to join unguaranteed hedge funds, so much the better for the taxpayer.

BOOM. Head shot. Make them pay for backing up the financial system from systemic risk.

One other question for me, is if anyone in the media is following up on what was supposed to happen with all of these plans? For example, I distinctly recall during the original bonus crisis with AIG, we were told they had to keep some insiders on staff because only they could figure out how to wrap up the company.

So, is AIG's CDS unit "wrapped up" now? Its been about a year. Is it that complicated? Are they still selling product? I have no idea, but I would be very interested.

Maybe I am not reading the right news sources for this stuff. I mean Yahoo News isn't going to in-depth anything. You'd think the Economist would do this stuff, but they really don't do "investigative" journalism. Maybe I need to read the New Yorker or something.

On the Other Hand

Thinking about the government subsidized cell phones, I have some devil's advocate thoughts.

1. How much does it cost the taxpayer? It seems it could almost be a Tracphone marketing concept. What if its basically price segmentation with a veneer of subsidy to keep normal people from using it? Like, let's charge the rich guy 25 bucks, because he can afford it, but the poor guy gets a cheaper rate. Let me know how much it costs the taxpayer. Maybe its really cheap.

2. Cell phones / phone lines in general can spur economic growth. (At least in poor countries where fisherman use them to determine where to sell their catch, etc.) I would bet this effect to some extent applies to the US and to low-income "income eligible" households as well. I was not joking about the ne'er-do-wells using them to find jobs.

Also, note that I have previously complained that US cell phone rates are fairly steep - US$ 69.99 for a single line from AT&T for a barebones package vs. 10 bucks in Taiwan. My mother already uses Tracphone and it is far less expensive. In fact, I wish I had opted for it myself. Damn teenagers and their needs for mobile internet access! So I could see this providing some savings to a needy but thrifty household and keep them available for the normal job market.

3. Maybe they just tax I-phone users to pay for this. Those people clearly have too much money and will not miss the money for a couple of stupid apps anyways.

4. The built-in bugging and GPS functions will make sure these are not used by drug dealers, illegal aliens, or anti-government malcontents. Seriously, you don't show up for that second TB vaccination shot, we track you down via your phone. OK, maybe not.

5. Worst evil thought I have ever had: Sell these phone numbers to telemarketers to pay for the phone and minutes. OK, shoot me now. Damn, that is completely evil. And would result in a complete elimination of point 2.

Free Cell Phones from the Government

My mother always complains when she sees the ne'er-do-wells in our neighborhood walking down the street smoking their cigs and chatting on their cell phones, usually en route to the Circle K to buy booze, sodas, or lottery tickets.

"They don't have the money for food, but they can certainly afford their cell phones and cigarettes!"

I always try to remind her that they might need that cell phone to look for a job and what not (and sort of ignore the cigarette/booze part. Hits too close to home.)

But now I have some good news! They are not wasting their money on that cell phone.

No, they are wasting the taxpayers!

SafeLink Wireless is a government supported program that provides a free cell phone and airtime each month for income-eligible customers.

Please, someone tell me this is a spoof.

There are already discounts for electricity and gas for "income-eligible" people. Now a free cell phone and minutes. If we get free healthcare going, and free food stamps too, pretty much all of life would then be covered. Hmmm, wait - the car. I need the "income-eligible" free vehicle with monthly gas allotment. I bet GM would okay with providing those. Then I campaign for free broad band (already a 'right' in Europe) and all I need is beer money.

Maybe I am just being crabby.

Yahoo Headlines

Pakistan hits Taliban, urges NATO to seal border

Isn't this the exact opposite of the headlines we were seeing in 2002 and such?

So, now we will probably pull out, and the Taliban will concentrate on Pakistan, with a safe base in Afghanistan.

Take your partner and Dos-i-Dos! Switch positions!

I guess the Paks sort of deserve this.

Just hope they can stave off calamity and keep the keys to the nukes in a very safe place.

The Other Shoe

So, the US credit bubble burst - that's the demand side.

What about the supply side of that bubble?

(Maybe being re-inflated by the Fed now, but that's another story.)

USD vs. Chinese Yuan

Don't let those spikes fool you. The range the currency trades in is less than 2% change.

Essentially flat. They are still buying our debts. They are still holding their currency down.

Europe takes it on the chin - they have to bear the brunt of currency adjustment because the Chinese currency just won't move. You think that is healthy?

New York Times article

Lacey Act

Another regulation for the US market.

Apparently you need to know the genus species and amount of plant material you use in your products that you ship to the USA. To make sure that nobody is using endangered species or stuff.

They even mention cardboard and paper - I hope that this will not apply to packaging materials.

But it probably will. Lawyers will decide that it does. Then we will have to explain to the Mom and Pop guys who make the boxes and print the instruction sheets that they need to tell us what tree was chopped down in Indonesia to make the paper for the instruction sheet.

Why can't we let Indonesia or China or whoever regulate their own markets for this stuff? I assume that Greenpeace can pressure them to ensure protected trees are not killed.

And it sure is a lot of paperwork (LOL) to comply to these laws - do they really save any trees? You know for sure that criminals clear-cutting ancient teak forests are going to figure out how to cheat the system - I doubt the US will be testing actual products - or will simply ship to other customers.

I guess it may make everyone use recycled materials for packaging, etc., as those are exempt I think. Even then, you still need to fill in the paperwork. I wonder how many mountains of data have to be collected and then ignored.

Cell Phone Rates

I had read somewhere that cell phone rates were very expensive in the US versus other countries.

Well, now I know.

I signed up for cell phones for 3 people in the USA with ATT. It cost US$ 69.99 for the first two lines and then US$9.99 for the third line. Expensive, and this is not even including messaging or internet usage.

I am now back in Taiwan and looking at my cell phone bill from Taiwan Da Ge Da....

NT$ 180

That is without any usage, but even when I was using it more, it wasn't US$ 35.00 per month, and messaging is free.

I may have to switch to a pre-paid phone for the USA and drop the ATT phone...just too much money for what its worth. I could still use my Taiwan cell for messages and the occasional email access in the US and probably save.

Oh, and AT&T also locks their phones so I cannot insert my Taiwan simcard into it for use here in Taiwan. THANKS AT&T!

Interesting Interview on World Economy

http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip217106

Though I was a bit jealous somehow.

The Wife's First Attempt at Sushi

Schadenfreude

In February of 2009, The People’s Republic of China (a communist country) once again broadcast to the world that they were growing increasingly uneasy with the amount of US treasuries they were buying and holding. At that point they owned more than $744.2 Billion in US government debt, with additional large holdings of private US debt in the form of corporate bonds. In an article published in Reuters. Luo Ping, director-general at the China Banking Regulatory Commission (a communist), broadcast the increasing discomfort China had with its mounting US debt.

“Except for U.S. Treasuries, what can you hold?” Luo was cited by the paper as saying. “Gold? You don’t hold Japanese government bonds or UK bonds. U.S. Treasuries are the safe haven. For everyone, including China, it is the only option.” In further remarks, Mr. Luo stated, “There will be no bottom-fishing of financial institutions, particularly in the U.S., because there is a lot of uncertainty about the quality of the books,” the paper quoted Luo as saying; “We hate you guys. Once you start issuing $1 trillion-$2 trillion… we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys but there is nothing much we can do.”

Mr. Luo, just a reminder, you're the ones who are buying these pieces of paper rather than letting your currency appreciate. No one has a gun to your head.

Falling Down - 2009

A post-racial society means that anyone can be a gun nut with horned-rimmed glasses.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Poor Career Choices

As a native Californian, I am appalled that my career counselor at high school did not inform me of the lucrative careers and pensions available working for the State or local government.

Bruce Malkenhorst, a city of Vernon retiree with a $499,675 annual pension.

The San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District chief, Craig Bowen, retired last December at age 51 with an annual salary of about $221,000 a year. His annual pension is $284,000.

The Moraga Orinda Fire District chief, Peter Nowicki, turned a $185,000 annual salary into a $241,000 yearly pension at age 50. Then Nowicki went back to work for the district on a five-month contract at $176,000 a year, collected on top of his pension.

In retrospect, I should have worked either in finance or the fire department.

Yahoo Headline

Oklahoma City police investigate Jessica Alba link to vandalism

I so want to click the link and learn more.

But I must resist.

Maybe a simple google image search for Jessica Alba would be a compromise?

Testing Astrology

Normally I do not read my horoscope, but today at McD's I read the Taiwan News and I stopped at the horoscope section to see the day's fate.

To paraphrase the horoscope, it says I am going to be really enthusiastic today.

Huh? I woke up in a mood from lack of sleep, weird dreams, business stress, moving stress, and (possibly the kicker) sleeping on a tile floor for a week anything but enthusiastic. Then I had to drive around and go to see my new Taiwan living quarters which make a Turkish prison look like a Martha Stewart creation. 

Now, all this was before Noon. So, maybe the rest of the day can act as a pseudo-scientific test (random sample of 1) for Astrology. Just as fire fights fire, pseudoscience can fight pseudoscience. 

So, far I have taken a long nap (again on the tile floor)  and canceled a business trip. I am about to go download some files in the bathroom (phrase copyright IJ) and then waste some more time before going to a KTV tonight for a friend's birthday.

I see little chance for extreme enthusiasm to break out, but since beer will drunk at the KTV, there is still hope for Astrology.

Yahoo Headlines

People choose news that fits their pre-existing views, study finds

I pretty much already knew that, though.

Errata

1. When should I sell off my stocks? The bear market rally has to end pretty soon.

2. Michelle Obama & Sarkozy's Franco-Italo Wife-Mistress

You know the First Lady could kick the shit out of that smug Eurotrash bitch.

Maybe smack her with a designed in the USA Coach handbag. They hold up better than Gucci.

USA! USA! USA!

Update: 

Okay,I assume these sorts of photos are just cherry picked from 1,000s taken, to show people in either a good, bad, or humorous light.

But looking at this again, I really get a vibe that says "BALEFUL." Barack and brood better be getting their homework done, making their beds, and taking out the trash, too. I know I would.

CT-Fucking-PAT 2

The form I filled out this time asked different questions.

Like if your employees were drug tested.

They also asked a lot about computer security procedures. 

Must be worried about cyber attacks being launched by stoner employees who don't have photo ID badges.

Update on Ethnic Quotas

Apparently not all Asians get the best deals form affirmative action...if you're Chinese, Taiwanese, or Korean it does not help much and might actually harm your chances for UC Berkely.

So, my kid is now a "gender-role challenged Pacific Islander"

gender-role challenged = tom boy

Pacific Islander = Taiwanese

but it sounds pretty oppressed, right?

Karl asked if people from Spain are considered Hispanic. 

According to the State of New York, they are not considered Hispanic for Affirmative Action purposes.

Other says yes. Others say Hispanic also includes Portgual, which would be inconvenient for Judge Sotomayor as Cardozo then gets "first Hispanic" laurels.

I probably should have used the word Latino instead to describe people who have some percentage of evil honky conquistador genes and some percentage of good, nuturing, peace-loving Aztec genes.

Then again, I suppose a Hispanic from Spain could have a genetic background as follows:

20% Indigneous Iberian

20% Ibero-Celtic

20% Carthago-Phonecian

20% Roman

20% Moor

Now, at least some part of that mix is white oppressorish, so I am just saying that they are as conflicated as our 1/8 Cherokee friend.

p.s. Some of those ethnicities are kind of made up based on Rome Total War.

p.s.s. I remember Laura Gomez, my shift manager at Taco Bell. She was a very, very hot blue-eyed blonde haired Hispanic, and she could have my "affirmative action" anytime she wanted.

CT-fucking-PAT

Yes, yes, yes we goddam lock up the factory at night.

Some old dude named Mr. Chen is fucking in charge of that shit.

Yes, he also changes the batteries in the burglar alarms at regular intervals.

I guess. Because I am not really going to spend 5 hours on this little list of check boxes.

Breathe deeply. Breathe deeply. Breathe deeply.

95% of CTPAT is common sense stuff that any owner of a factory will do on their own because they don't want their inventory or equipment stolen. Maybe its just the cynic in me, but I suspect the natural avarice of capitalists is a stronger incentive than any concern for stopping terrorism. (Though, if you paid a bad man enough, they'd probably give you a key to that CPAT approved gate anyways.)

5% of CTPAT might be useful to teach companies to watch the empty container and how the container could be used for smuggling contraband, not just nukes.

Actuarially speaking, the amount of time spent waiting in lines, or filling out CTPAT forms might very well outweigh the lifetimes lost by actual terrorist acts.

Question

Do you think it would be easier to turn around a car company like GM or to take over the healthcare system and lower costs?

Errata

1. Applying lessons from the finance system's trouble to other areas...

Too big to fail, in retail, would that be Wal-Mart?

2. Skeptical on Green Jobs

We're being promised green jobs making windmills* or solar power equipment, but I bet those jobs end up in China and instead the only jobs in the USA will be the warehouse forklift guys and the installers. Anecdotal evidence is that the Chinese already make solar panels, and sell most of them to Germany where they are heavily subsidized.

It is especially wrong-headed to have a cap & trade or carbon tax that is based only on domestic production - you essentially give yet another cost advantage to China and friends - instead of on consumption and have it apply to imports as well as domestic products. 

I anticipate a WTO challenge to this, but since Value Added Taxes are already applied to imports and rebated for exports, I see no reason a carbon tax could not be done similarly. 

This also elminates the free-rider problem where you could end up with all carbon emissions simply being transferred from the USA to China and India - not exactly the goal of these policies I think.

*Just read some Danish company (Vestas?) is investing billions in windmill factories in Colorado, so maybe there will be jobs. I'm curious how well they do versus the Indian companies that also make windmilss - maybe the quality issue will make them competitive.

Yahoo Headline

Multiracial people become fastest-growing US group

This ties into some experiences I had with my daughter. When registering for kindergarten in the United States, I made sure I checked the Asian ethnicity. From the story it says you can now check more than one box, but I think I would have chosen only the Asian option, because I think the US will end up with entitlement quotas based on "how ethnic you are", much as in bad old days of quadroons and octoroons, and such. See this quote from the story:

Liebler noted a potential dilemma where a white student who is one-eighth Cherokee applies to college and seeks an admissions preference based on race and disadvantaged status. Should the college give the multiracial student the boost, if one-eighth of his family suffered a past racial harm but seven-eighths of his family were the perpetrators?

Notice the complete bullshit assumption that the 7/8's white must be guilty of causing racial harm. What if they were Shakers or abolitionists or Russian peasants who only moved to America in 1900?

Or the most torturous impossibility, Russian peasants who had been enslaved by the Turks/Tartars/Mongolians who share the same Asiatic genes as the Cherokees, and in fact, had harmed the Russian peasants before the white man ever made it to the New World...

I guess you'd have to prove that with documentation.

How about the whole Hispanic ethnicity, which essentially is some mix of white and American Indian. Should they be forced to break out the fractions, too? "Hmmmm, according to the spectrograph, looks like you're 70% conquistador and only 30% Indig." Or could they figure out by your genes that you were mainly Aztec, who had conquered many other local peoples, and thus would be ineligibile since getting smacked down by the Spanish was really just Karma?

Okay, back to reality now. In the Yahoo story's hypotherical case, the student would be an octoroon of ethnic goodness and probably would lose out to a full Asian (though that may change, too.) 

Maybe I should have claimed Pacific-Islander, after all Taiwan is an island in the Pacific.

Note: I am not sure if am for or against affirmative action. I just think its gets silly when we get down to fractions of ethnicities. 

Final crazy thought: So, the kid who is 1/8 Noble Savage and 7/8 White Oppressor....what if he exists today only because some scumbag drunken Irish soldier raped a peaceful basket-weaving Cherokee woman several generations back? I mean, sure, objectively that is a horrible thing, but subjectivley, for that person, they have to be happy it happened...otherwise they wouldn't exist.

p.s. 1/8 Cherokee means someone made it with a Cherokee like 80-100 years ago, which would be 1909-1929, so in this instance we are not even dealing with actual perpetrators of the Trail of Tears.

Paraphrasing Confucius

Women and children are not only the hardest animals to raise, but the most pain in the ass to move.

Outer Space Alien Intelligence Officer

Imagine you are an intelligence analyst for the Bzrokigians, a alien species who has been spying on the planet Earth via remote electronic surveillance. Below is some of the analysis you will provide your leaders based on the collected photo:

"In Earth society the most powerful people are old people with double or triple chins and shortish head fur. They wear monochrome clothing based of the color black. Eyeglasses are only worn by the most powerful individuals, and may be worn in either the "aggressive" position covering and shielding the soft defenseless eye orbs, perhaps symbolizing distrust or wariness, or upon the head fur, showing openess and friendship, or simply brazen strength. The small glasses of distilled fruit juice seem to be ceremonial, though we are uncertain why the female apeling's glass appears less full than that of the male apeling. The Xenopsychology team has extrapolated that the baring of teeth to the counterparty is accompanies by deceitful action in approximately 80% of incidents involving high level individuals."

Currency Markets

I still do some foreign currency investments, which basically means I keep some CDs in RMB waiting for some more appreciation to happen. I also bought VE, a European stock that pays a nice dividend, when the Euro was weakish.

Anyways, this article interested me. Basically the gist is that China will try to trade with Brazil using their own currencies and not the US dollar. Nothing hard about that, except that for some reason these sorts of exchange rates tend to simply follow the dollar.

Let me explain via the NT$. Theoretically, I thought there should be a separate market for US$/NT$ exchanges and another  one for €/NT$ exchanges, but they instead simply follow US$/€ relationships. So, if its NT$ 44/€, its probably because the US$ is weak vs. the Euro and not because there is some strong demand for Euros in Taiwan due to trade, investment, etc.

I suspect the RMB/Real will have a similar relationship where the exchange rate is simply a proxy of RMB/USD and Real/USD - so does it really hurt the US dollar as a reserve currency when they trade like this? 

I don't know - I could even be wrong about my experience with the TWD.

But I would suggest that unless you really need USD, to not hold too many of them.

PS: Or am I dumb and the market is so huge and strong that its simply an equation of US$ =NT$ = €, so that any changes are so swiftly computed that it looks like the NT$ is unimportant?

GM to import cars from China

I am so glad we gave GM billions to rescue them once, and probably will give them billions more in the coming years to keep them and the UAW going.

Because we had to save a vital part of American industry and the high-paying blue collar jobs they provide. 

Of course, by "American industry" I mean import warehousing and by "high-paying blue collar jobs" I mean paying union wages for guys to watch the Chinese cars roll out of said warehouses while collecting paychecks paid for by taxpayers. Those workers would help give the car a final wipe-down with a damp cloth, but since they're classified as left-rear bumper welders, the union work rules won't let them do that. So Sorry. I'll just finish the sports page and then go home to watch American Idol.

UPDATE:

Maybe you wonder why GM management is doing this...my theories

1. Because they are stupid and think that the Democratic run government will let them do this AND still take government money.

2. Because they can't be forced to drive in hybird sedans to China - so their private jets will still be useful.

3. Because they enjoy banquets and socializing in China. Don't laugh - you'd be suprised how some companies decide where to purchase based on non-economic factors.

 

Taiwan news makes Fark

Man busts wife, mate in porn DVDPrinSubmit comment:Submit comment

May 13, 2009 01:40pm

A TAIWAN carpenter bought a porn DVD only to find secretly taped motel footage of his wife having sex with his friend, whom the husband later stabbed.

The husband, identified only by his surname Lee, discovered the illicit sex on the DVD in 2002.

The sexual acts apparently had been recorded using a hidden camera and were on a pornographic DVD, titled Affairs with Others' Wives, which the husband bought from a vendor to watch at home. 

Lee, who lives in Taoyuan County near Taipei, divorced his wife after viewing the DVD. His friend, a butcher, fled their village. 

In August 2008, Lee spotted the butcher in Chungli City, returned with a knife and stabbed his former friend in the thigh. 

KEY LESSONS

1. When having sex in a motel, make sure to wear your Sunday best and smile a lot. It will increase your chances of stardom.

2. Make sure the woman knows to fake a few orgasms and comment appreciatively on your size and skills.

3. Be wary of poetic justice. If you are a butcher, expect to be stabbed with a knife. If you are a teach, expect to smothered in chalk dust. Be prepared.

This reminds of the story, possibly apochryphal, of the foreigner in Changhua who was caught sleeping with the police chief's wife. That pretty much means your ARC is going to be revoked, dude.