Post-It note wars

A very cool phenomenon that seems to be taking place in France and perhaps Holland too (neither Chris nor I have seen it).  People are using Post-It notes to make very cool designs on their office windows.  Here's a video, in Dutch\, that's easy enough to understand from the visuals. And here are a few cool examples from this site, PostItWar.com A few examples:

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Obama pushes transportation stimulus

It's not entirely clear how much money this really is - if it's on the order of $30bn, it's around 5% of what we need for one year.

Discussions about specific legislation that would extend the funding has caused friction between Republicans and Democrats. A bill has not yet been officially introduced. But Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, has outlined a two-year extension at the cost of $109 billion, which would keep spending at its current levels. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair John Mica (R-Fla.), meanwhile, has pushed a six-year extension with a 34 percent reduction in the amount spent.

As this bill is over two years, it appears to therefore be only 2.5% of the actual amount of the annual stimulus spending that Krugman and Stiglitz say we need (i.e., on the order of $600bn to $800bn a year).

That doesn't mean this is a bad idea. But if it's the only idea, or partnered with a lot of other 2.5% ideas, then it's more likely that this is puffery to make it look like they're doing something about the economy when they're really not doing much at all.  From Sam Stein at HuffPost. Read the rest of this post...

Possibility of Rick Perry presidency firing up liberal base of Dem party

Oh I don't know, I think it'd be funny as hell if Rick Perry became the next Ken Mehlman - i.e., secret gay plant at the highest reaches of the party. Remember, Melhman assured the right that he wasn't gay as well, and look what that got them. I'm just amazed that they have no qualms about Perry, after all the rather detailed rumors. This gay activist says "bring that girl on!"

More from Ben Smith

And while conservatives enjoy Perry’s ability to enrage their liberal foes, some Democratic strategists have also welcomed his emergence.

“Whether he’s the nominee or not, he absolutely helps fire up our base,” said Jennifer Palmieri, the vice president for communications at the liberal Center for American Progress. “To the degree to which progressives are disaffected and unenthusiastic – this is their ‘holy sh**’ moment.”

Clinton strategist James Carville, however, said Perry remains his second choice.

“Actually we’d all prefer Michele Bachmann,” he said.

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Judge finds prima facie evidence that US government may have "vindictively prosecuted" Dan Choi

At issue is whether the US government is seeking a harsher charge against former Lt. Dan Choi, for handcuffing himself to the White House fence as a protest against the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, than would have been sought against others who protest routinely at the White House fence.

The judge seems to think Dan has a case, at least enough to proceed.  And it is awfully suspicious why the government is pursuing this rather high profile gay case at the same time the administration claims it wants to kiss and make up with the gay community as next year's election approaches.  This is not the way to kiss and make up.  Which thus makes one wonder if the entire thing is politically motivated.  It seems the judge is curious too.  More on AMERICAblog Gay. Read the rest of this post...

Justice Dept sues to block AT&T;–T-Mobile merger; Schneiderman also investigating (separately)

Lots of news on the AT&T;–T-Mobile mega-merger. First, from Internet guru (and former ICANN board member) Susan Crawford, we learn that the Justice Dept. is suing to block the merger deal itself:

Right now [August 31], DOJ’s Sharis Pozen is holding a press conference to announce that DOJ is suing to block the merger. This is great news that shouldn’t be surprising. It was a terrible deal in a host of ways.

The Bloomberg story is here. AT&T; and T-Mobile are already giants, as any cell phone customer knows. That deal should be blocked.

We also learn that New York AG Eric Schneiderman, who apparently has some spare time, is also looking — separately — at the merger (my emphasis):

Antitrust Bureau Chief of the New York Attorney General’s Office Richard L. Schwartz today issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit to block the proposed merger of AT&T; and T-Mobile:

“Attorney General Schneiderman looks forward to reviewing the Department of Justice’s complaint to determine the best course forward on behalf of New York consumers and businesses.

“Since March, Attorney General Schneiderman has played a major role in the review of the proposed AT&T;, T-Mobile merger. Working in close partnership with the Department of Justice, this office has played a leadership role in a group of 26 states conducting interviews and gathering evidence central to this investigation. We have conducted numerous interviews of business enterprise customers throughout New York State and throughout the country to assess whether the merger would result in harm to competition to the business enterprise market, and closely analyzed the parties' claims that the merger would lower costs and improve service to consumers.

“Attorney General Schneiderman remains particularly concerned that the proposed merger would stifle competition in markets that are crucial to New York's consumers and businesses. This includes concerns about vulnerable upstate communities, where concentration in some markets is already very high, and the impacts on New York City’s information-intensive economy, which is particularly dependent on mobile wireless services. Simply put, the impacts of this proposed merger on wireless competition, economic growth, and technological innovation could be enormous.”

If Schneiderman is looking for his own purposes at stifled competition, that might be bad news for more than just this merger, and good news, finally, for wireless consumers.

For why, here's more from Susan Crawford (again, my emphasis):

[E]ven without the deal we still have a problem. Here’s why:

• The suggested merger shed light on the fact that we are heading towards – and may already have – a duopoly in the market for wireless access, with a yawning, insurmountable gap between the two big wireless carriers and everyone else;

• Even without the merger, there are insufficient protections in place for innovation in connection with these wireless networks. The existing unregulated duopoly will have ample incentive and ability to keep profit margins as high as possible by discriminating against uses and services these companies believe are undermining their business plans. The mere threat of this discrimination casts a cloud over investment in new ideas and new ways of making a living for all Americans.

Society reaps increasing economic returns from the existence of ubiquitous high-speed communications infrastructure, and it is appropriate to incentivize and support the creation of this infrastructure. But those social returns come because the benefits of ubiquitous, general-purpose, nondiscriminatory communications infrastructure spill over to all of us, not just to a few large companies. The complete discretion already enjoyed by AT&T; and Verizon to capture economic rents and choose winners and losers from among the companies that use their networks to launch businesses of their own – and to raise their prices and set the terms and locations of their services at will – means that their private incentives are already not necessarily aligned with our nation’s social incentives.

And she knows whereof she speaks. Not only was she a board member of ICANN, but she was Obama's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy before leaving to return to law school teaching.

It's a scandal that the U.S. wireless market has consolidated around giants in the two main technologies: GSM (which uses SIM cards) and CDMA (which doesn't). AT&T; and Verizon are trying to swallow the rest. (Note that AT&T; and T-Mobile are both SIM card–type networks.)

But the competitive situation is already bad. For example, the U.S. consumer pays up to five times as much for cellular service as many Europeans.

That's what Crawford meant by "capture[d] economic rents" and why I bolded the phrase. It's a rentier's world in so many ways, a world of dinosaurs and rabbits. The deathgrip of Rentier Rule, and rebellion against it, is an obvious explanation for the world-wide "troubles" we have been seeing — and will continue to see, I'm afraid.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Radioactive waste piling up in Japan

It's amazing to hear of a kilometer-long pile of waste. It's unthinkable that the government still doesn't have a plan for what is clearly a problem. Read the rest of this post...

WHO: US newborn death rate #41 in world

Who would have guessed that Malaysia, Poland and Lithuania had such fantastic health care? After all, we all know the US has the best of everything. We know this because our political leadership tells us this every day whenever reforms are discussed. How is it possible to be better than number one?

Babies in the United States have a higher risk of dying during their first month of life than do babies born in 40 other countries, according to a new report.

Some of the countries that outrank the United States in terms of newborn death risk are South Korea, Cuba, Malaysia, Lithuania, Poland and Israel, according to the study.

Researchers at the World Health Organization estimated the number of newborn deaths and newborn mortality rates of more than 200 countries over the last 20 years.

Speaking of health care, does anyone have any real idea what is supposed to be in the Obama health care plan that was passed a while back? How is it possible to fight over something so important, yet leave an entire country still wondering what changes are coming, whenever they finally arrive? Read the rest of this post...

Forbes: Could Bill O’Reilly drag Fox News into the hacking scandal?

Forbes:

According to Gawker, the top-rated Fox News host is the prime mover behind a highly irregular police investigation in his Long Island hometown. A detective working for internal affairs was allegedly asked to meet with private investigators who were trying to build a case against another detective, who had become romantically involved with O’Reilly’s wife while the two were separated. This, by the way, is the promised bombshell that prompted Fox News’s bizarre and dishonest reports about how Gawker is “dying.”

To build a case that News Corp. constitutes a corrupt organization under anti-racketeering statutes, prosecutors have to show that there exists a pattern of wrongdoing sanctioned at the highest levels of the company.

I’ve said I consider it unlikely that such a pattern can be established. But the charges against O’Reilly make it that much less unlikely. As Gawker notes, his boss, Fox News chief Roger Ailes, has a habit of using local cops as though they’re his personal employees. 

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CEO pay and lobbyist fee costs higher than taxes paid by corporate America

We got into this mess because of distortions with the tax code and we need to examine them closely and change them to get out of it. It's not possible to have a viable middle class when corporate America keeps showering the select few with everything. What's unfortunate is that while we may hear some noise about this in Washington, neither party has shown much interest in getting serious about helping the middle class. Why does corporate America hate America?

Twenty-five of the 100 highest paid U.S. CEOs earned more last year than their companies paid in federal income tax, a pay study said on Wednesday. It also found many of the companies spent more on lobbying than they did on taxes.

At a time when lawmakers are facing tough choices in a quest to slash the national debt, the report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a left-leaning Washington think tank, quickly hit a nerve.

After reading it, Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called for hearings on executive compensation.

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Iowa AG Tom Miller complains about scrutiny he’s facing in bank settlement talks

We are finally seeing righteous indignation is within the 50 state attorneys general settlement talks:

Another person close to the talks, who like several others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation more freely, said many in the group are “just exasperated. . . . This smear campaign of lies and innuendo, it’s uncalled for, it’s unprecedented, and it threatens substantial consumer harm.”

If you think this referred to the smears being launched by Wall Street and the Obama administration at NY AG Eric Schneiderman, you'd probably agree with it. But you'd be wrong. Apparently the push by Schneiderman, Beau Biden, Catherine Cortez Masto and other allies for a deal which doesn't shut down their ability to investigate foreclosure and securities fraud is hurting Iowa AG Tom Miller's fee-fees.

“We’ve been accused of being in bed with the banks. To say that to a group of people who have spent the last seven to 10 years fighting mortgage abuses day in and day out is an insult of the highest order,” said Iowa Assistant Attorney General Patrick Madigan, a longtime Miller deputy, who has worked on major settlements with subprime lenders such as Countrywide and Ameriquest. “It’s just unreal.”

I guess Miller's office has a real problem when the entire New York Democratic congressional delegation chides him for tossing Schneiderman out of the talk's executive committee. Instead of responding to Jerrold Nadler et alia, Miller is running to the press to complain about his unilateral, pro-bank actions coming under scrutiny.

The reason Miller is being accused of being in bed with banks is because that's what you call it when you raise more than $250,000 from the finance industry right after announcing that you're leading a 50 state investigation into that same industry. It happens when you then shift from guaranteeing to "put people in jail," to producing a settlement term sheet before you even sat down to negotiate with the banks. It happens when you kick the individual who has done more to ensure that there is actually investigation before a settlement off the executive committee for having the temerity to try to get the best deal possible. If Tom Miller's office doesn't like being accused of being in bed with banks, he should get out of the bed and start investigating the banks. Read the rest of this post...

Prof who always gets it right says Obama will win in 2012

From US News:

Allan Lichtman, the American University professor whose election formula has correctly called every president since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election, has a belated birthday present for Barack Obama: Rest easy, your re-election is in the bag.

“Even if I am being conservative, I don’t see how Obama can lose,” says Lichtman, the brains behind The Keys to the White House.

Lichtman’s prediction helps to explain a quirk in some polling that finds that while Americans disapprove of the president, they still think he will win re-election. [Check out political cartoons about the 2012 GOP field.]

Working for the president are several of Lichtman’s keys, tops among them incumbency and the scandal-free nature of his administration.Undermining his re-election is a lack of charisma and leadership on key issues, says Lichtman, even including healthcare, Obama’s crowning achievement.

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Stiglitz: "The only thing that can be done (to help the economy in the near term) is fiscal stimulus, spending more money."

In this segment of Chris' and my interview with Joseph Stiglitz, Joe talks about another stimulus as the only effective thing the government can do in the near term to help the economy:

"The only thing that can be done is fiscal stimulus, spending more money.  And, the United States is in a sense a good position, because we can borrow at very low interest rates.  We've underinvested in education, technology, infrastructure for a couple of decades, particularly in the Bush years  The result of that is we have many high return investments, those investments pay far more than the cost of capital, and that means if we make those investments, the national debt in the intermediate term will actually be lower and debt sustainability will better, i.e., that is to say that the debt to GDP ratio will be lower."

Previous interview snipets:

* Stiglitz: Probabilities of a double dip recession "certainly have increased significantly"
* Stiglitz: Obama administration and the Fed have demonstrated an "inability to make economic judgements."
* Stiglitz: "The Fed is very good at creating problems, not so good at resolving them.... QE3 won’t help" Read the rest of this post...

British bankers also fighting bank reform

Of course they are. The banks are larger than before the crisis and if you ask them, they are being treated too harshly since they are the saviors of the economy. The problem is that they're looking for a new angle to make money. They can't justify the bloated payouts with traditional buying and selling stocks and need a new bubble that can be exploited in the short term. For the banks it's all about short term games so it's no surprise that they want to be left alone to gamble. If it was their own money it might be one thing, but it's not. They want to gamble on everyone else's money and risk another downturn all for the hope of getting a big bonus.

Fortunately the UK business secretary Vince Cable is sounding the alarms. Whether the Tories are listening is another story.

"It is disingenuous in the extreme to use the current context to argue against reform. Banks are in a way trying to create a panic around something which they know has got to happen," he said.

Cable has long favoured the separation of retail and investment banking. He added: "The governor of the Bank of England and many other people have been arguing that we have to deal with the 'too big to fail' problem. We can't have big global banks with balance sheets bigger than British GDP underwritten by the taxpayer; this can't go on and it has got to be dealt with."

The business secretary also said that he did not expect another 2008-style meltdown in the banking sector, but acknowledged that difficulties could still lie ahead for the British economy.

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Amnesty: 88 killed during detention by Syrian government during protests

Most have been victims of terrorism by the Syrian government. The Guardian:

At least 88 people, including 10 children, have died in detention in Syria since the uprising against the regime began in March in what amounts to "systematic persecution on a vast scale", according to Amnesty International.

The majority of victims were tortured or ill-treated, with injuries ranging from beatings, burns and blunt-force traumas to whipping marks, electrocution, slashes and mutilated genitals.

Amnesty documented the names, dates and places of arrest of victims, while independent forensic pathologists have established possible causes of death in some cases by examining film of the bodies.

Now that Dick Cheney has reared his ugly head again and so freely discussed terrorism, does anyone in their right mind think state-run torture doesn't harm the perception of a country besides being a crime against humanity? As someone who lived and traveled extensively outside of the US during the Bush-Cheney years, this latest Cheney remark is completely false. He's a serial liar. Read the rest of this post...