Chris Hayes on the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP)

Here's Chris Hayes on the Rachel Maddow Show discussing the Home Affordable Modification Program, abbreviated HAMP (which always throws me somehow). This is painful, the natural consequence of "partnering" with private entities to do public functions. Painful (h/t David Dayen):



Would you like some fries with that triangulation?

GP Read the rest of this post...

Bizarre Chris Matthews interview in which he claims Breitbart showed entire Sherrod tape

Very weird. Read the rest of this post...

Judicial confirmations plummet under Obama

Why do Republicans block Obama's judicial nominations? Because they can. From CAP:

Judicial confirmations slowed to a trickle on the day President Barack Obama took office. Filibusters, anonymous holds, and other obstructionary tactics have become the rule. Uncontroversial nominees wait months for a floor vote, and even district court nominees—low-ranking judges whose confirmations have never been controversial in the past—are routinely filibustered into oblivion. Nominations grind to a halt in many cases even after the Senate Judiciary Committee has unanimously endorsed a nominee.

Such tactics are completely unprecedented, and so are their results. Fewer than 43 percent of President Obama’s judicial nominees have so far been confirmed, while past presidents have enjoyed confirmation rates as high as 93 percent. And President Obama’s nominees have been confirmed at a much slower rate than those of his predecessor—nearly 87 percent of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees were confirmed.

The data could not be any clearer. As Figure 1 shows, judicial confirmations have fallen off a cliff since President Obama took office.

Read the rest of this post...

Study: Smarter people go to bed later

He's got numbers to show it. And it may be true. The question is whether going to bed later makes you smarter, or whether smarter people choose to go to bed later, need less sleep, think too much and can't get to sleep, have more to do, or what. From Psychology Today:

Night Lights

Bedtimes and wake-up times for Americans in their 20s by IQ.

Very Dull (IQ < 75)

Weekday: 11:41 P.M.-7:20 A.M.

Weekend: 12:35 A.M.-10:09 A.M.

Normal (90 < IQ < 110)

Weekday: 12:10 A.M.-7:32 A.M.

Weekend: 1:13 A.M.-10:14 A.M.

Very Bright (IQ > 125)

Weekday: 12:29 A.M.-7:52 A.M.

Weekend: 1:44 A.M.-11:07 A.M.

Read the rest of this post...

NY Times: 'Industries Find Surging Profits in Deeper Cuts'

I can't say it any better than the NY Times headline writer — Industries find surging profits in deeper cuts. The article itself, from Sunday's Business section, is a great read, if painful. There's too much in it to clip cleanly, but the opening captures one of the main points. (By the way, the end of this post contains an action suggestion; the goal isn't depression, but information and motivation.)

And now the article. It seems Harley-Davidson, that staple of American symbology, as a tale to tell (my emphasis):

By most measures, Harley-Davidson has been having a rough ride.

Motorcycle sales are falling in 2010, as they have for each of the last three years. The company does not expect a turnaround anytime soon.

But despite that drought, Harley’s profits are rising — soaring, in fact. Last week, Harley reported a $71 million profit in the second quarter, more than triple what it earned a year ago.

This seeming contradiction — falling sales and rising profits — is one reason the mood on Wall Street is so much more buoyant than in households, where pessimism runs deep and joblessness shows few signs of easing.

Many companies are focusing on cost-cutting to keep profits growing, but the benefits are mostly going to shareholders instead of the broader economy, as management conserves cash rather than bolstering hiring and production. Harley, for example, has announced plans to cut 1,400 to 1,600 more jobs by the end of next year. That is on top of 2,000 job cuts last year — more than a fifth of its work force.

The article goes on to talk about management "leveraging its position" to make workers more productive. (Care to work there? You too can be "leveraged.") And because it's the business page, there's a handy link so you can add Harley-Davidson to your portfolio. America at work.

The whole piece is good, with lots of corporate examples.

But I'd like to close with the graph that goes with the article, a two-parter:



On the left, look first at GDP (light gray). Now Employee Compensation (dark gray). Now Profit (black). Now look at the last three dots on the graph. The amount of GDP that I didn't go to Employee Compensation — was added to Corporate Profit, almost one-for-one.

Now look on the right. That's corporate cash. Remember what we said about deflations — that cash was king and things were its footstool? The corps are sitting on a mound of cash, waiting for the price of what cash buys to fall to the floor. Wanna bet that wages are one of the things they're watching to fall?

The types who run these companies may be predatory and unpatriotic, but they're not stupid.

One way to fight this, by the way, is to organize the unemployed as a political force. They are both potent, large (unfortunately) and highly motivated — very much like draft-age students during the Anti-War Movement. If you're considering action, consider this.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Saturday morning open thread

One of the neat things about being in Paris is walking. I have to admit that I was never much of a walker until I got my puppy earlier this year. And once I dropped 7 pounds as a result of our twice a day romps around the neighborhood, little Sasha had me hooked on the value of a good stroll around the block.

But walking in Paris is something entirely different than walking in Washington, DC. To wit, my walk home last night from the Marais, an old neighborhood in the center of Paris. It was around 10pm and I was about to hit the metro, but figured, why am I heading home? I had nothing to do, but still, it's early and it's Paris. So I walked. The entire walk took about 45 minutes (not including a ten minute ice cream break at my favorite Italian gelato store, Amorino - they're a chain throughout Paris, and the best damn ice cream I've ever eaten - equal to the best stuff in Italy).

Anyway, so my walk started with the usual Marais night life, which can be a bit overwhelming unless you take a less traveled street, which I did. Then it's quite quaint. I headed down to the Tour St. Jacques, which was recently (relatively) renovated, and was standing in all its glory, bathed in green light, oddly.

I looked down the block and caught a glimpse of the Hotel de Ville, or city hall. And it's such a gorgeous building, even by day - but at night, with the lighting, it's simply stunning. So I took a detour so I could walk by it. As I got closer, I heard music. There was some kind of concert going on, and the crowd seemed to be liking it. So I headed on over.



Here's a quick video of the concert:



I have no idea who the band was, but they were speaking French with a heavily English, I think, accent. As I cut through the crowd, there were a slew of bikes just standing there, and I realized - it's 10 o'clock on a Friday night in Paris - it's the city-wide bike ride! Every Friday night, in summer at least (not sure about the rest of the year), at around 10 o'clock at night, they close some of the streets in Paris and have either a big bike ride, or a big roller blade ride. It's just great. I need to try it some time, at least the bike ride.



So I left the bike ride before it began, cut across the river and caught a glimpse of Paris Plage, or Paris Beach. Every year they truck in tons of sand and dump it along the roadway along the Seine. Probably a mile's worth. They then put up beach umbrellas, bring in vendors, water sprays, chairs, music, and voila! - it's a beach in the middle of the city. It's quite the popular event, takes place, more or less, from July 20 to August 20. You can get a glimpse of Paris Plage in the right side of the photo below.



Then more trekking south until I approach, of course, Notre Dame cathedral.



Honest to God, this is what it's like walking home in this city. You just walk by the most incredible things. I stopped for a moment and looked up at Notre Dame, a sight I've seen probably dozens of times, but just had to look again. Then headed south, across the river (Notre Dame is on an island, basically), and heard music playing, again. This time it was a guy with a guitar serenading a pretty large crowd along the Seine. He was playing Gloria Gaynor, I think, then swung into full blown Madonna.

Here's a quick video of the guy playing - I'm pretty sure he's singing "Like a Prayer." I love seeing the people just sitting along the Seine, 1030 at night, couples, friends, lovers, without a care in the world. I can't imagine sitting in any big city along a river late at night, and surviving.



From there, I walked through the Latin Quarter, heading down past St. Sulpice, and then hit Amorino, and walked the final minutes home in chocolate bliss. Read the rest of this post...

CREW corrupt candidates update: Jeff Greene

We talked here about the CREW 2010 Crooked Candidates site. They've just added another, Democrat Jeff Greene — and he's, yep, a Floridian. (Is it the water?)

Jeff Greene (U.S. Senate, Florida): Mr. Greene is a business man and a Los Angeles real estate mogul.

While self-financing his Senate campaign, Mr. Greene appears to be skirting Federal Election Commission regulations by not giving complete information regarding vendors used by his campaign. Mr. Green is financing his campaign, in part, through a series of in-kind contributions, but the campaign has not revealed the names of the vendors providing services. . . .

In 2005, a multimillion dollar yacht owned by Mr. Greene dropped anchor on an environmentally sensitive coral reef off the coast of Belize causing major damage. . . . Mr. Greene also has been criticized for amassing his wealth through credit default swaps and subprime mortgages. In fact, Mr. Greene was likely the first individual to trade credit default swaps. . . . Finally, Mr. Greene paid Democratic National Committee member Jon Ausman $4,000 for political consulting and strategy six days before Mr. Ausman endorsed Mr. Greene for Senate.

Busted up a coral reef with a yacht anchor? Sheesh. And I think that Ausman guy got seriously taken — $4000 looks like pin money to me.

Click through to read about Ron Howard's dealings with Greene. Again, sheesh.

GP Read the rest of this post...