More bubble signs emerging in Chinese real estate market

And by "bubble" they mean "bursting bubble" in this case. It's almost eleven minutes long but it's an interesting discussion about some of the problems in the Chinese real estate market. Many have come to accept that there are problems ahead with the Chinese market but Chanos digs into some of the most troubling statistics. While we think of China as an exporting country (which they do) 70% of the Chinese economy is driven by construction. Once that grinds to a halt - which it is starting to do - the problem starts.

Towards the end they also talk about the similarities between the state guided economy of Japan in the 1980's and China today. Typically state-driven bubbles are ugly when they burst. Read the rest of this post...

Cantor blocking Congressional Insider Trading Act?

It's crazy to think that Congress even allows insider trading, but hey, that's life in the 1%. Apparently Cantor has an ax to grind with Senator Bachus who was publicly embarrassed on the recent 60 Minutes episode so now Cantor is making life difficult for Bachus. When the tables are turned, I can't wait to see someone apply an equal amount of love to Cantor and you know that day will happen. CNBC:

The Republican sponsor of the bill in the House, Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus of Alabama, had scheduled a markup of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act for next week. But on Wednesday, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia cancelled the markup session.

Cantor reportedly said he blocked the bill to give Congress more time to examine the issue. Critics of the move, however, fear that any delay could kill the bill entirely.

Some version of the the STOCK Act has been bouncing around Capitol Hill for six years. But recent attention to the issue of Congressional insider trading, following reports from CNBC's Eamon Javers and a "60 Minutes" report, brought the bill out of stasis and made its passage into law seem likely. If the latest delay pushes the bill into next year, it may become lost in election-year politics.

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Putin’s DDoS attack against democracy

It is now very clear that the Russian election was rigged. The evidence is incontrovertible. The question is whether enough people living inside Russia will get to see it.

Putin has for many years maintained an alliance with the major cyber-criminals operating inside Russia. The criminals are allowed to operate openly in return for performing political favors. One of these groups, the Russian Business Network, operated out of the regular office block in St. Petersburg shown below for many years and was only forced to move offices and change their name after the Economist published an article that finally embarrassed the authorities enough to make them move and change their name.


Since the weekend, a large portion of the two largest criminal botnets have been re-targeted to perform DDoS attacks on opposition Web sites.  (Background on what a DDoS attack is.)

This operation went into overdrive after the election as video evidence of ballot stuffing started to appear on YouTube.

What is inexplicable about these attacks is that Putin was the overwhelming favorite to win the Presidential election in March fair and square. His main rival is the leader of the discredited Communist party who citizens blame for the economic catastrophe that fell in the wake of the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Putin is still the candidate most likely to win the election, but Russian politics have suddenly changed and it is now possible to imagine Putin might not win on the first round. Read the rest of this post...

Scientists attempt to Jurassic Park clone wooly mammoth

Mammoth photo: Shutterstock

Sounds complicated, and somewhat unlikely.  Still, quite interesting.  From the BBC:

Scientists from Russia and Japan are undertaking a Jurassic Park-style experiment in an effort to bring the woolly mammoth out of extinction.

The scientists claim that a thigh bone found in August contains remarkably well-preserved marrow cells, which could form the starting point of the experiment.

The team claim that the cloning could be complete within the next five years.

Right, but the you get to the fine print, including the fact that you might need to try with 100,000 cells (the explanation in the article is unclear exactly as to whether you'd need 100,000 embryos to get one to work, or what - but it's a lot. Read the rest of this post...

Climate talks going down to the wire in Durban

It's of course, the same old crowd who is blocking progress. Everyone knows that it will be difficult, but it has to happen. Rather than listening to the big polluters or religious extremists who don't believe in climate change, how about paying attention to scientists?

The United States, China and India could scuttle attempts to save the only treaty governing global warming, Europe's top negotiator said Friday hours before a 194-nation U.N. climate conference was to close.

After two weeks of negotiations, talks went through the night Thursday with delegates struggling to keep Durban from becoming the graveyard of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

"If there is no further movement from what I have seen until 4 o'clock this morning, then I must say I don't think that there will be a deal in Durban," said Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action.

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Occupy Wall Street protesters raid Newt’s fundraiser

Olbermann covered it. Brilliant. He also shows footage of a human red carpet that the Occupy protesters did at the Chamber of Commerce Christmas party. Again, brilliant.

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Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime

I just love this video.

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Carney is right about the economy

White House spokesman Jay Carney is getting some flak for saying that no one knew in early 2009 just how bad the economy was going to get.  And he's right.  Alexander Eichler at HuffPo says this isn't true, and cites several examples.  But the examples Eichler cites simply say that things were going to get a lot worse (true), and that the stimulus wasn't nearly enough (true).  But it's also true that no one was talking about unemployment going as high as it did.  Even Krugman, circa February of 2009:

As for unemployment, Krugman is predicting it will peak around 9% sometime later this year. There is a chance unemployment could reach the double digits, however, if the crisis continues to spread rapidly across the globe.

A chance. But he expected 9%, not the 10% that we got.

The recession was far worse than anyone expected at the time - that doesn't mean it wasn't expected to be just awful.  There's a difference.  Carney is right on this one. Though, the administration should have known that its stimulus wasn't big enough for even the projections at the time. Krugman explains that too, and he was right. Read the rest of this post...

Lots of good changes with 401K plans

While the investments themselves may continue to be bumpy, the scandalous fees being charged should be improving for many Americans. The old model was typical of the Republican era, in that Wall Street could charge whatever they wanted, without question. Even worse, the fees were so muddled, few could understand them. The model can always use improvement but the new changes that are arriving soon are good news for consumers. Having clearly stated fees is a great place to start.

Companies are shaking up their 401(k) retirement plans, trimming lists of mutual fund offerings and shaving the fees workers pay as they prepare for new federal rules that will put more plan information in front of employees.

"This is dramatic. I have not seen anything like this in 25 years of working with plan sponsors," said David Wray, president of the PSCA, a 401(k) advocacy group made up primarily of employers.

His group recently reported that, in the last year, 63.8 percent of 401(k) plans changed their investment lineup; in contrast, fewer than 20 percent did so in 2009.

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GOP lines up to support Wall Street over Main Street, again

Some things will never change. The Democrats have been no strangers to helping Wall Street (Obama continues to rake in more money from Wall Street than all of the GOP candidates combines) but on this occasion, it's the GOP who is blocking efforts to help out the middle class. If Obama really wants his candidate for consumer protection, he's going to have to make this a public fight. He failed to support Elizabeth Warren so this time, he needs to find a way to make it work.

Can the Republicans ever do anything besides say "no" to everything? LA Times:

This isn't about making the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau more accountable. It's about holding the president's nominee hostage until Republicans can deliver a more business-friendly regulator to their deep-pocketed corporate backers.

The agency is charged with protecting consumers from rapacious credit card companies, mortgage lenders, payday loan firms and other businesses that aren't always known for their consumer-friendly ways.

Creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was fought every step of the way by banks and other financial services firms, which argued that a new industry overseer was unnecessary, despite the fact that unscrupulous lending practices drove the global economy to the brink of ruin and fostered the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

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Putin: Protests in Russia are all Hillary's fault

I really wish Hillary Clinton could stop rigging elections in Russia to make it look like Vladimir Putin won in suspicious conditions. Please Hillary, you have to stop tampering with the Russian elections and let Putin return the country to being a proper democracy.

Vladimir Putin has accused Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, of fomenting an increasingly vociferous opposition movement in Russia, threatening to derail the two countries' fragile resetting of relations.

The accusation builds on months of Russian statements and media coverage blaming popular uprisings around the Arab world on western scheming. It comes as Washington and Moscow tussle over a host of disagreements, from missile defence to Syria.

Speaking to supporters on Thursday, Putin accused Clinton of giving "the signal" to opposition leaders, who are expected to gather with tens of thousands of supporters for a protest on Saturday. He rejected Clinton's repeated criticism of a parliamentary vote last weekend that gave Putin's United Russia party nearly 50% of the vote amid widespread reports of fraud.

Ahhh, the secret signal that all Americans know and love. Was it the double eye wink or was it the secret code word that every American knows? Read the rest of this post...

New Lockerbie investigation being prepared

Nobody ever thought convicted bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi acted alone. (Speaking of, he's no longer "within days" of dying, again. What a miracle, again.) The new Libyan government has indicated they are ready for British police to visit to continue the investigation of both the Lockerbie bombing as well as the murder of a police officer outside of the Libyan embassy in London. It would be nice to have final closure on those events. The Guardian:

The new Libyan government has given British police the green light to mount fresh investigations into the Lockerbie bombing and the shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher, the British foreign minister Alistair Burt has said.

In an interview with the Guardian, Burt said on Thursday he had been told officially during a two-day visit to Tripoli that Libya's interior minister in the new government, sworn in last weekend, had promised to co-operate by allowing detectives into the country to reopen their investigations.

The interior minister, Fawzy Abdel Aal, had agreed to "the early return of the Dumfries and Galloway police in relation to Lockerbie", Burt said.

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