Walmart invests $500 million in Chinese e-commerce business

Walmart is already full of products made in China so it's not really a surprise. FT:

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer by sales, has invested in China’s largest e-commerce consumer electronics seller, 360buy.com, in a move that underlines the growing interest of global retailers in China’s rapidly growing online market.

The retailer was one of six investors in a round of funding that raised $500m for 360buy, whose rivals include Taobao, the dominant online marketplace owned by Alibaba.

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How does one train a cat to do this?

Neither of our cats would tolerate wearing the mask/hat let alone put it on by themselves. We're impressed if the cats can eat and keep the food in their bowl instead of all over the floor. This cat is impressive. Read the rest of this post...

Republican Senator Shelby includes $500 million for canceled NASA project in budget

But remember, the GOP is really concerned about the budget. They're extremely serious, you know, and won't let any frivolous spending or "porkulus" money into the budget because they stay awake at night worrying about federal spending. God bless America.

Thanks to congressional inaction, NASA must continue to fund its defunct Ares I rocket program until March — a requirement that will cost the agency nearly $500 million at a time when NASA is struggling with the expensive task of replacing the space shuttle.

About one-third that money — $165 million — will go to Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, which has a $2 billion contract to build the solid-rocket first stage for the Ares I, the rocket that was supposed to fill the shuttle's role of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station.

But under a new NASA plan signed into law by President Barack Obama in October, there's no guarantee that the new rocket required by that plan will use solid-fuel propulsion. And, in fact, many in the agency say a liquid-fueled rocket would be cheaper, more powerful — and safer.

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Obama, Bush, Hillary and Palin

Just saw on ABC that the most popular man in America, in an annual survey, is Barack Obama, followed by GW Bush. That's insane. GW Bush? Who voted for him? Republicans can't find anyone better than Bush to vote for? And then there's the most popular woman. First came Hillary, then came Palin. Palin? Seriously? Dumb and dumber, for Republicans stupid is a fetish. Read the rest of this post...

GOP House leaders pave way for more unpaid-for tax cuts

CBPP via TPMDC:

The new rules would stand the reconciliation process on its head, by allowing the House to use reconciliation to push through bills that greatly increase deficits as long as the deficit increases result from tax cuts, while barring the use of reconciliation in the House for legislation that reduces the deficit if that legislation contains a net increase in spending (no matter how small) that is more than offset by revenue-raising provisions.

To translate: Bush tax cuts are fine, but, say, paying for infrastructure projects by taxing carbon would be forbidden, even if the net result would be a reduction in the deficit.

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Two charts dispel myths about inflation

There are two economic themes, bells that are being constantly rung, to frighten people who read little real news for themselves — most people, in other words.

One is that the Fed is "printing money" — Krugman calls that a meaningless concept as phrased, given the modern definition of "money", but the phrase has visceral grab. QE2 (the second phase of Fed "quantitative easing") is the current candidate.

The other is "hyper-inflation" — like what happened in pre-Nazi Germany under the Weimar republic. That postage stamp on the left, for example, is overprinted from 10 marks to 30,000 marks.

The propagation of these themes is nothing but a terror campaign, since neither makes sense in a world ruled by logic, yet both make sense in the world of easily understood bogeymen and creatures under the bed.

And you see them everywhere — in off-hand comments by news anchors, on CNBC reports, in investment newsletters, and in 20-page solicitations for those newsletters, which are much more broadly mailed than the newsletters themselves. You hear it from your friends, who got it from the media ether.

If you read about money (as opposed to being knowledgeable about it), you've encountered these themes several times a day for more than a year.

So are they true? Paul Krugman has been especially helpful lately, and offers these simple pictures to tell a simple story.

1. Is the current increase in monetary base ("Fed printing money") connected to inflation? No.


The blue line is the monetary base or M0, the narrowest definition of money. The red line is M2, the broader definition most "real" economists use to forecast inflation. (Here, "real" means "non-propagandistic".) The green line is consumer prices, the flat-lined patient lying on the table (yes, I left out an adjective).

2. Is the increase in commodity prices (the latest "here comes hyper-inflated Santa", this season's creature under the bed) connected to inflation? Not in the least.


The bouncy blue line is commodity prices. The flat red line is consumer prices, our patient still on the table. Krugman's explanation for the current rise in commodity prices is here. (Short answer: Too many soon-to-be middle-class Asians spending the money you don't have in your paycheck, thanks to Our Betters, who love us because we give them things.)

Krugman calls these "zombie lies". But they don't tell themselves. We're inundated with government journalists, pouring this poison in our ears; and the newsletter writers, many with real-world currency cred, have turned into hacks, just common hacks, on this subject.

It's sad to see how many in the public world are keeping these zombies upright. On the other hand, we owe them lunch for calling themselves out so plainly.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Haley Barbour continues to live like a lobbyist

Promoting your home state is one thing but having a personal jet and billing the state $500,000 for iffy travel is a bit much. He's all for cutting social programs in a state that survives due to more federal money than it pays into Washington, but somehow cuts don't apply to him. He has a lifestyle to maintain, economic crisis be damned. It's good to be da' king.

The flight logs obtained by POLITICO indicate that Mississippi has spent more than $500,000 over the past three years on Barbour's air travel. That total does not include security and other logistical costs associated with his trips. And through a quirk in Mississippi law, whenever the governor is out of state, Mississippi must pay the lieutenant governor a salary differential as acting governor.

Barbour has reimbursed the state for a handful of flights, but he has more often scheduled obscure official business to coincide with the business of politics, according to the manifest and logs, which were obtained from the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration under a Mississippi Public Records Act request by a Democrat who has worked in the state, who provided them to POLITICO.

Critics say the flights suggest that Barbour has continued to live the lifestyle of a highflying lobbyist as he's slashed his state's budget for government services across the board since taking office in 2004.

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TSA attacks pilot who exposed failures of TSA

Wouldn't fixing the failures rather than attacking the pilot make more sense? Of course, little about the TSA and their security theater makes any sense.

The pilot, whose name has not been released, uploaded a series of clips taken at San Francisco International Airport. His intent was to expose the insane double standard of TSA's airport employee screening policies: Although pilots and flight attendants are required to pass through the same concourse checkpoints as passengers, many ground workers, including baggage handlers, caterers and cabin cleaners, are exempt from these checks. The YouTube segments, which have since been taken down, showed ground employees passing through a simple turnstile on their way to work. You can see some highlights from the videos in this television news report by News10 in Sacramento, Calif., where the pilot lives.

This has been TSA policy from the beginning. It is also something I've been writing about in my columns, on and off, for the past eight years. Finally the issue is getting some attention -- if not entirely for the right reasons. This should be a story about farcical security practices; instead, as the media has been playing it, it's the story of a renegade pilot.

TSA says the pilot's actions are "under review," citing the possible release of what the agency calls, "sensitive security information."

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Palin has 33% favorable rating in Alaska

She's number one!

We've polled Palin's favorability in ten states over the last couple months. In Alaska just 33% of voters have a favorable opinion of her to 58% with a negative one. The only place where fewer voters see her positively than her own home state is dark blue Massachusetts.

Democrats hate Palin in Alaska but they hate her everywhere so there's nothing newsworthy about that. What makes her home state numbers unusually bad is that Republicans see her favorably by only a 60/30 margin. In most places she's closer to 80% favorability within her own party. Also while independents don't like her anywhere their level of animosity in Alaska is unusually large- 65% unfavorable to only 25% with a favorable opinion.

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Glenn Greenwald scorches Fran Townsend and CNN anchor during Assange discussion

Was CNN looking for someone who questions like Jeff Gannon when they hired her? Wow, was she bad. Fran Townsend is everything that you might expect from a Bush administration person, but Greenwald really gets on a roll. How sad is it to watch CNN and other US media outlets defend censorship?

More from Glenn Greenwald on the merger of journalists and government officials. Read the rest of this post...

Time to cut the Defense budget?

It makes no sense that the defense budget is always off limits. Why is cutting funding to the cops okay, but not DOD? Dead is dead. It doesn't make us any safer having more missiles and more tanks if the local thug knocks us off. And same goes for health care. More troops don't make you any safer if you're dead from the cancer you can't afford to treat.

Yes, the issue is more complicated than that. But it is a shame how defense spending, and the larger issue of the military, is so off limits for any serious discussion in this country. We're all supposed to salute and say "yes, spend more!" Well, maybe it's time to acknowledge that the Republican party bankrupted our country with their tax cuts and their wars and now the military needs to be on the block along with everything, and everybody, else.

Which brings us to another point. Why aren't Democrats, including the White House hammering home the point that the GOP wars and tax cuts have bankrupted us? We actually let the GOP use the deficit issue against us. Really? At some point Democrats need to acknowledge that they don't know how to fight back, and find someone who does. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesdsay Morning Open Thread

Another balmy day in Chicago, and much of the country I suspect. My dog discovered that she isn't a real fan of 15 degree weather. Mom's dog, on the other hand, while not a particular fan of the cold weather, LOVES the snow. She just plunges right in, whereas my Sasha sort of daintily walks around the snow, occasionally looking up at me like it's all my fault or something.

In news, I read an article in the Post that was particularly interesting. It was about how few "high-risk" patients - i.e., those with pre-existing conditions who couldn't get affordable coverage - are enrolling in the new plans mandated under the health care reform bill. The Post gave two examples, one of a woman who liked her plan, though she complained it was expensive, and a guy who said his plan was way too expensive.

"I don't mean to be gushy about it, but they potentially saved my life," said Maureen Murray, 50, of Arlington County, who had dropped her individual insurance policy in July 2009, after her work as a freelance video producer dried up. Murray was getting ready for a gym class in October when she "felt something go down my left side." It was a stroke. She was still at Alexandria's Mt. Vernon Hospital when a CAT-scan detected an aneurysm on the left side of her brain. She was discharged two days before Halloween with a $25,000 hospital bill.

A friend recommended the new high-risk pool. Four days after Thanksgiving, she was approved. It will cover her surgery in January to repair her aneurysm. The premiums, she said, are steep - $358 a month even after a rate reduction in January. "I'm in rough financial position, but ... I can get another job," Murray said. Without that insurance, "I might not have that opportunity."

On the other hand, Will Wilson, 57, of Chicago, said he is "really, really, really, really discouraged." After he was diagnosed with AIDS in 2002, he discovered that his insurance at the time paid only $1,500 for medicine each year. His AIDS drugs cost $3,000 a month. Paying for the rest, he ended up in bankruptcy. Now Wilson, a tourist trolley guide, gets help from the federal AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

But with no coverage for other kinds of care, Wilson remembers tears streaming down his face in February 2009, the night that he watched Obama vow to Congress, "Health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year!" Wilson became an activist for health reform, circulating petitions, going to demonstrations. And the day after the president signed the bill into law, he was featured in a Chicago Sun-Times column quoted as saying, "I've had a grin on my face all day" at the prospect of the high-risk pool he could join. That was before the rates were announced in July, and Wilson discovered that the premium - nearly $600 per month - "was almost as much as my rent. It was like, no way! I was floored."

Actually, both stories are pretty damn good news. Yes, neither plan is cheap, but they're also not out of line with current fees - and at least now the plans exist. Hell, the first woman pays significantly less than I do, and I'm quickly catching up to the second man.

I don't think people realize that this is even available yet. It's just not terribly easy getting information about health care reform and how it's impacting our coverage. I'm trying to find info about when and how the annual limit ban is going to affect my prescription drug coverage (currently limited to $1500 a year by CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield). My insurance doesn't even come close to paying for the asthma drugs I need - that's why I buy what I can in Europe, where things are absurdly cheaper than here for the same drugs made by the same companies. It'd be nice if someone would tell us what's going on with our plans, and what to expect when. That might shift public opinion. Read the rest of this post...

British banks attempt to censor PhD student who exposed their weaknesses

Thankfully the PhD student (who the banks have tried to have dismissed) has a professor who appreciates the work being done. Heaven forbid the banks fix their mistakes that allow users to complete transactions without knowing the PIN code. That might actually benefit customers. What's amusing is that thanks to the arrogance and laziness of the banks, more than just a few people now know the banks have this problem. Brilliant move, guys.

Cambridge computer scientists have become embroiled in angry exchanges with Britain's banks and credit card lenders, accusing them of bullying and trying to "censor" a PhD student who was exposing flaws in chip-and-pin machines.

A leading Cambridge academic has now written to bankers' representatives demanding that they stop pressing for the removal of a student's doctorate work from the web.

Professor Ross Anderson, from Cambridge University's Computer Laboratory, has previously researched glitches in chip-and-pin banking that allow withdrawals to be made from accounts without needing to know the holder's PIN. As part of his thesis work, one of his students, Omar Choudary, exposed how easy it was to make such a withdrawal.

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UK's Labour Party to distance itself from unions

Hopefully they have a strategy for replacing the unions because the decline of the unions has completely altered the balance of power in the US political system. The US left hasn't been able to balance out the money on the right from business. The old Democratic dream (by some) to usher in a "new left" by joining hands with Big Finance hasn't really worked out well for anyone either. Tony Blair's similar efforts worked out well financially for him on a personal basis (he now works for Big Finance) but for the country, it worked out about as well as Clinton's love affair with that industry. The Independent:

Labour has proposed introducing a ceiling on donations to any political party which could be as low as £500, The Independent has learnt. The move could break the long-running deadlock between the parties on agreeing a new system of financing politics.

Previous attempts to halt big donations have failed, partly because Labour was reluctant to give up its multimillion-pound gifts from the unions. But Mr Miliband is ready to gamble on Labour attracting thousands of small donations from individual supporters as part of a drive to take "big money" out of politics.

He also wants to change Labour's culture by allowing the public a vote when the party chooses its leader. He plans to give 25 per cent of the votes to non-party members who register as Labour supporters. MPs, trade unionists and party members would also each have a quarter of the votes in Labour's electoral college. At present, MPs, union and party members each have a third of those votes.

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Capital Blue Cross cancels mental health insurance coverage

What timing for releasing the news over the holidays when fewer are paying attention to the news. This industry repeatedly shafts customers because they know they can get away with almost anything. It was easy enough to kick around the Democrats (and kill the public option) but with the GOP coming into Washington, life is getting even better.

Ms. Hatcher said an increase in health costs forced the company to eliminate its mental health coverage for individual plans. Premiums would have increased by 10 percent, on top of the 9.9 percent that is already expected for next year, if it maintained its behavioral care. The company was afraid its members would not be able to afford medical coverage.

"We want to serve these people," Ms. Hatcher said, "but we want to provide them with a coverage that they can afford."

For Ms. Bandics, the fact that Capital Blue Cross chose to leave mental patients uncovered heightens the disparity between the treatment of physical and psychological conditions.

Uh huh. Because the insurance industry cares so much about what the public can afford. Read the rest of this post...