Truth must be heard and seen

$2,000,000 is chickenfeed in federal budget terms.  But, for those of us who would like to see our money spent wisely, it's a goodly sum.  We have spent this amount and more each year for the past several years flying a plane over Cuba beaming American-sponsored tv programming; over the past six years we've spent $24,000,000.  There is only a very small problem with this effort: Cuba has jammed the tv signal so that maybe 1% of the programming gets through.

To its credit  the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is in charge of the program, has asked Congress to scrap the program, citing its exorbitant expense and dubious cost-effectiveness.  But anti-Castro legislators have rejected the request. 

Is JPMorgan Worried?

The NY Times thinks it is.   They cite the penalty of $410,000,000 paid to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission earlier this week.  Yes, it is the largest penalty the Commission has levied, but it's still just company money; it's not Jamie's personal stash.  Yes, the Commission did threaten to hold Blythe Masters, the architect of JP's scheme, individually liable, but backed down from their threat.  Yes, JP is being investigated by eight federal agencies, but do you really think anybody will go to jail for all the crimes JP has committed?

Infrastructure gets a grade of D+

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) evaluates the nation's infrastructure every four years.  Our grade this year is D+, which is an improvement over the 2009 grade of D.  D has been the typical grade since 1998; for twenty-five years we have seen basically no improvement in infrastructure overall. This is what a great nation does?

The ASCE evaluations are quite comprehensive.  They measure water and environment, transportation, public facilities and energy.  Each of these categories is brokne down into sub-categories, which are then evaluated as to eight criteria: capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, resilience, and innovation.  Overall, most grades fell below a C.

Maybe natural gas is not the savior

That's the opinion - and belief - of Anthony R. Ingraffea, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University.  He makes a strong case, based largely on the fact that natural gas wells leak methane and other contaminants outside their casings and into the atmosphere and water wells.

"Methane is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, though it doesn’t last nearly as long in the atmosphere. Still, over a 20-year period, one pound of it traps as much heat as at least 72 pounds of carbon dioxide. Its potency declines, but even after a century, it is at least 25 times as powerful as carbon dioxide. When burned, natural gas emits half the carbon dioxide of coal, but methane leakage eviscerates this advantage because of its heat-trapping power."

Ingraffea claims that many studies show that 5% of new gas and oil wells leak immediately after being opened.  And, over time the concrete in these wells starts disintegrating.  NOAA has done a study that shows leakage rates of 2.3 percent to 17 percent of annual production of oil and gas.  A 2011 study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research concluded that unless leaks can be kept below 2 percent, gas lacks any climate advantage over coal.

WOW 2

A few weeks ago I showed a video of the brain controlling a robot. Here's one of a brain controlling a wheelchair.



Courtesy of our Farmington Correspondent.

Have I forgotten?

It seems to me that there are many more large scale accidents involving planes, buses, ships and trains than there were in the last century.  True, there are more people on earth and they travel more often.  Still it seems to be more than whatever would be considered normal. Couple this with the weird weather and you have to wonder whether some major, major changes are in the wind.

These all happened in the past year or two.

It's been 4 days since I wrote about Pope Francis

In the past two weeks I've written twice about Pope Francis and concluded that, despite early hopes that he would be different from the two other 21st century popes, it seemed as though he was spouting the same old b.s.  Then, today comes a report of an interview he gave on the plane back to Rome.  He talked with the reporters for over an hour and, according to reporters, considered every question they raised, be it on homosexuality, women or the Vatican Bank.

John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter summarizes the main points of the interview:

• Replied when asked about the Vatican's alleged "gay lobby" that while a lobby might be an issue, he doesn't have any problem with the inclination to homosexuality itself: "Who am I to judge them if they're seeking the Lord in good faith?" he said.
• Conceded he doesn't yet know what to do about the Vatican bank, saying it could become an ethical bank, an assistance fund for good causes, or be closed altogether.
• Said he hasn't run into significant resistance to reform inside the Vatican and joked that if there really is a "gay lobby," he hasn't yet seen it stamped on anyone's ID cards.
• Argued for the importance of women in the church, yet said John Paul II "definitively ... closed the door" to women priests. He called for a deeper "theology of women" beyond disputed questions such as whether they can be lectors at Mass or head Vatican agencies such as Caritas Internationalis.
• Said a preliminary investigation had been conducted regarding charges of immoral conduct against his hand-picked prelate for the Vatican bank, Italian Msgr. Battista Ricca, and the investigation "found nothing."
• Said of Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, the former Vatican accountant who was recently arrested for alleged involvement in a plot to smuggle $26 million in cash into Italy, that he's not in jail "because he resembles the Blessed Imelda" -- an Argentinian expression meaning he doesn't seem to be any saint.
• Suggested that the Synod of Bishops may be in for a shake-up in the direction of both greater efficiency and greater collegiality.

Allen goes into greater length and quotes excerpts from Francis' comments.  This article certainly made me change my opinion and adopt a wait-and-see attitude.

The War on Terror

Stephen Walt reminds us that there are two primary aspects of this war: military and preventing the growth of terrorist organizations.  Despite a lot of talk about prevention, little has been done.

Walt repeats bin Laden's three main arguments for destroying the United States:

• we don't care for Islamists, vide the sanctions against Iraq and our exploitation of Mideast oil.
• we support corrupt and illegitimate dictatorships in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
• we are overly favorable to Israel.

Walt believes that we have done little to counter these arguments. And, in fact, we have exacerbated the situation.

What do you think?  I think he has a point.

Speech #1

President Obama is planning to 'crusade' for his economic plan in a series of speeches across the country, the first of which was in Galesburg, IL.  I confess I neither listened to nor read the first speech; I didn't do much other than skim an article or two reporting on it.  My general sense was it was more of the same: a lot of words, little, if any, action.  Yves Smith and Michael Hudson did listen to the speech and confirm my sense. In this posting they essentially eviscerate it as so much b.s.

Living in an alternate world

As I age, I find myself living in an alternate world more and more.  Or, maybe it's They who are the ones divorced from reality.  I write this having watched 15 minutes or so of a tv show called Toddlers and Tiaras, which follows the lives of families involved in beauty pageants.

The unreality of the show to my mind is that the contestants are kids, really kids.  There was a 22-month old who had already been in 21 pageants.  Her mother and grandmother were both helping her learn her routine, which involved some sort of dancing.  I wondered who was helping the kid become toilet-trained.  Or, is there a need to do so, as the kids are dressed in clothes for grown-ups; some of this clothing is intended to be sexy.  Here are some of the children - 8 to 10 years old - dressed and ready to participate in a pageant.

The parents, almost only the mother, are obviously somewhat odd.  Some are trying to re-live their own pageant days, others are living their own lives through their daughters.  Few of the parents seem as though they can afford the costumes, entry fees and travel expenses they have to shell out.

I suspect that the pageants are a good source of revenue for those who run them.  There must be an entrance fee plus I'm sure there are a lot of 'valuable' services entrants can buy.  The organizers are not stupid.  There is not one winner of the pageant, there are many winners.  This way the parents can believe that next time their child will win.

This is what America is about

Do you remember how you felt on 9/12 when the world sympathized with us? "How I long for the old days!"


Courtesy of our Duncaster correspondent

We like drones

Here are the results of a recent Pew Research survey relative to the use of drones.

A criminal indictment? Heaven forfend!

After investigating charges of insider trading for more than ten years, the federal government indicted SAC Capital, a major hedge fund, accusing it of securities fraud and wire fraud.  SAC was charged with permitting a “systematic” insider trading scheme to unfold between 1999 and 2010.  Interestingly, the case seeks to attribute criminal acts of several employees to the company itself, claiming that the fund “enabled and promoted” the illicit behavior. 

The government accused the company of “an institutional indifference” to wrongdoing that “resulted in insider trading that was substantial, pervasive and on a scale without known precedent in the hedge fund industry.”  SAC supposedly hired traders with “proven access” to corporate insiders likely to hold inside secrets.  Five onetime SAC employees have now admitted to insider trading while at the fund.

Further, Stephen Cohen, the owner of SAC Capital, has been accused in a civil action by the SEC of failing to supervise employees suspected of insider trading.

The most expensive prison in the world

That's Guantanamo.  In May, Obama said the cost was $900,000 per prisoner.  Yesterday. two months later, the cost had risen to $2.7 million for each of the 166 inmates, or so says Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. Smith never explained how the cost could have tripled in two months.  He claims the annual cost is $454,000,000. 

He also claims that we have spent $4.7 billion running Guantanamo since the facility opened in 2002. 

Something doesn't sound right. How could we spend $4.7 billion over 11 years, yet have a current annual cost of $454,000,000 which in Smith's view increased the total cost by so much ($28,220,000) in the current year?

Of course, even if the per prisoner costs have not changed from Obama's estimate, they are at least fifteen times as much that in our super-maximum prisons.

Back to the Middle Ages, Part 2

Last Wednesday I commented on the Pope's granting of new indulgences, which harken back to the Middle Ages.  A week later I find myself surprised again, this time by Pope Francis' urging that drugs not be legalized, as he doesn't think that legalization will correct the problem.  Yet, in the same speech he said, "There are so many situations in Brazil, and throughout the world, that require attention, care and love, like the fight against chemical dependency." and "How many 'dealers of death' there are that follow the logic of power and money at any cost. The scourge of drug-trafficking, that favors violence and sows the seeds of suffering and death, requires of society as a whole an act of courage."  Wouldn't legalization of some drugs minimize his concerns?

Security is paramount

I've long held that we go overboard on security.  Another example is supplying Rick Perry with a security detail whenever he goes jaunting around the country whether it's to get businesses to move to Texas or to run for president. From November of 2010 to this May Texas has spent more than $2.6 million providing security to Perry.  Most of it was in connection with his run for president.  Yes, Obama was provided with a similar benefit; it, too, was over the top.
Would that more of our government officials would be like Mike Dukakis and take the MTA.

Yves Smith doesn't think much of Larry Summers

Her primary concern is Summers' presidency of Harvard:

So Summers couldn’t keep his ego out of the way, bullied the people around him, ignored the advice of not one but two presidents of Harvard Management, and left a smoldering pile of losses in his wake. And serious adults are prepared to allow someone with so little maturity and such misplaced self confidence to have major sway over much bigger economic decisions?

But she does mention a few other misdeeds:

And that’s before we get to Summers’ role in the ouster of Brooksley Born over credit default swaps, and his role as Treasury secretary in supporting the passage of Gramm–Leach–Bliley and the repeal of Glass Steagall (admittedly so shot full of holes at that point as to be close to a dead letter, but still necessary to allow Traveler and Citigroup to merge). Yet Summers has refused to recant any of these actions.

 She thinks those touting him really are trying to get Tim Geithner nominated.

Banking, Warehousing, Shipping, Generating Electricity, Metals Marketing

All of the foregoing activities are activities of the banking powerhouses.  So what happens when one of them fails?  Of course, we'll bail them out for, if we don't, not only will the financial world suffer but people using electricity, fuel, metals, etc. will suffer.  So, the banking fiasco will affect the daily lives of many people beyond the financial aspect of their lives.  Yet, that's the risk we are running and the Federal Reserve let it happen when in 2003 they determined that "certain commodity activities are complementary to financial activities and thus permissible for bank holding companies.”

The banks have become truly too big to manage.  They have assets in the trillions, operate around the world, and operate oil tankers, coal mines, electrical generating plants and zinc warehouses.  This is costing us today and will cost even more tomorrow.  

Sunday's NY Times told how Goldman Sachs manipulates aluminum in its warehouses so that companies have to pay more to get their orders filled quickly or wait up to 18 months. 

Morgan Stanley has constructed power plants in Georgia, Alabama and Nevada, allowing it to become a major electricity seller. In 2006, it acquired “full ownership of Heidmar Inc., a Connecticut-based global operator of commercial oil tankers. 

JPMorgan Chase runs a significant network of electric power generating facilities, trades oil, deals in metals globally and owns power and gas businesses. 

Fortunately, the Fed is reconsidering its 2003 decision.

Standalone Emergency Rooms

These are ERs not affiliated with a hospital and they are growing.  In 2009 there were 200, today that number has doubled.  They are growing because they are profitable. They are more profitable than urgent care centers because they can charge a "facility fee" plus the regular doctor's fee.  

The owners of these ERs have done a good marketing job.  They are usually located near high-end shopping centers in attractive buildings, advertise to and target consumers with private insurance.  Another appeal to the consumer is the fact that these ERs are not as busy or crowded as hospital-based ERs.

But from the perspective of lowering healthcare costs, the Standalone Emergency Rooms are not helping.

What does this say?

Major earthquakes in China

• April 2013 - 6.6 magnitude quake in Sichuan province kills at least 160
• September 2012 - 5.6 magnitude quake in south western Yunnan and Guizhou provinces kills at least 80
• March 2011 - magnitude 5.4 earthquake in Yunnan kills at least 22
• April 2010 - magnitude 6.9 quake hits Qinghai province, killing over 1,100
• May 2008 - magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan kills up to 90,000

 From the BBC

Significant Earthquakes Past 30 Days

1. 5.913km E of Chabu, China2013-07-21 23:45:56 UTC9.8 km deep
2. 6.546km ESE of Blenheim, New Zealand2013-07-21 05:09:31 UTC14.0 km deep
3. 7.3218km SSE of Bristol Island, South Sandwich Islands2013-07-15 14:03:43 UTC31.0 km deep
4. 6.629km NE of Kandrian, Papua New Guinea2013-07-07 20:30:07 UTC62.0 km deep
5. 7.3115km ENE of Taron, Papua New Guinea2013-07-07 18:35:30 UTC386.3 km deep
6. 6.155km S of Bireun, Indonesia2013-07-02 07:37:02 UTC10.0 km deep
7. 6.6Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge2013-06-24 22:04:13 UTC10.0 km deep

From the US Geological Survey 

Hindery Again

I've written a few times about Leo Hindery, a former CEO of major firms, who has some sensible ideas about our economy.  Despite being in the 1%, he has ideas as to how the country can work better for the 99%.

The first thing is to accept reality.  Hindery thinks that the unemployment rate is 14.3%, not the 7.6% reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The difference is attributable to two types of workers: marginally attached and part-time-of-necessity.  

He defines marginally attached workers as those who, "while wanting and available for jobs, have not searched for work in the past four weeks but have searched for work in the past twelve months."  There are 2,600,000 of them, including 1.0 million "discouraged workers" who did not look for work specifically because "they believe there are no jobs available or none for which they would qualify." 

Part-time-of-necessity workers are workers unable to find full-time jobs or who've had their hours cut back. These 8,200,000 workers are often referred to as the "underemployed". 

When you add both of these types to the BLS numbers, you wind up with 22,600,000, or 14.3% unemployed.

How can one say that the economy is coming back?  It may be for the 1%, but not the 99%.

Setting Prices

It's not easy setting prices, particularly when you are in a highly competitive industry.  It can be even harder holding a price when you are a small company selling to very large companies.  But it's a lot easier to set and maintain prices when it comes to healthcare, especially when the government is of great help in maintaining prices.

Most of the fees in healthcare are based on Medicare.  And Medicare fees are based on the time various procedures take.  And the time various procedures take is set by a committee of the AMA, the American Medical Association, i.e., doctors.  The lobbying group for doctors provides the basis for what the government and private insurance companies pay the doctors.  Sound strange to you?

Every year the Relative Value Update Committee (RUC), a committee made up of 25 members appointed by the various medical societies representing specialists and primary care physicians and six others, survey doctors asking how much time is spent on various procedures.  Does it seem odd to you that the doctors who fill out the surveys are informed that the reason for the survey is to set pay?  Would this cause some doctors to overstate the time of some procedures? It certainly seems that way as some doctors are working more than 24 hours a day if one believes their time estimates.

Further, despite the increasing use of sophisticated technology (which has reduced the time spent on many procedures) the survey results are seven times as likely to raise estimates of work value than to lower them.  Perhaps this is why Medicare spending on physician fees per patient grew 58 percent between 2001 and 2011.

The Sky

This was made by stacking 200 pictures based on a time lapse.

Courtesy of Planet Earth

Ethical Behavior on Wall Street

Labaton Sucharow, which has been around for 50 years, is trying to establish itself as the firm that SEC whistleblowers would go to.  They have published the results of their second annual survey of ethical behavior on Wall Street.  They had 250 people respond to the survey. Here are their key findings:

• Despite the many reforms put in place in the wake of the financial crisis, only 36% of respondents felt that Wall Street has changed for the better since Dodd-Frank’s passage in 2010.

• • More than half of respondents–52%–felt it was likely that their competitors have engaged in unethical or illegal activity to gain an edge in the market; 24% felt employees at their own company likely have engaged in misconduct to get ahead.
  • Misconduct is still widespread in the financial services industry; 23% of respondents indicated that they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace.
  • 29% of respondents believed that financial services professionals may need to engage in unethical or illegal activity in order to be successful.
  • More than one-quarter of all financial services professionals–26%–believed the compensation plans or bonus structures in place at their companies incentivize employees to compromise ethical standards or violate the law.
  • An alarming number of financial services professionals, 24% of respondents, likely
  would engage in insider trading to make $10 million if they could get away with it.
  • Shockingly, and consistent with recent and high-profile criticism of the culture within
  the financial services industry, a full 28% of respondents felt that the financial services
  industry does not put the interests of clients first.
  • Building on this seemingly endemic culture problem, a concerning number of financial services professionals indicated that their leadership may put profits above ethics; 17% felt their leaders were likely to look the other way if they suspected a top performer engaged in insider trading. Equally concerning, 15% doubted that their leadership, upon learning of a top performer’s crime, would report it to the authorities.
  • As enforcement actions are on the rise and new reforms have strengthened financial regulators and law enforcement authorities, the court of public opinion is following suit; 62% of financial services professionals felt the SEC is an effective watchdog and 57% felt that FINRA is effective.
  • Despite the encouraging 89% of financial services professionals who indicated a willingness to report wrongdoing given the protections and incentives such as those offered by the SEC Whistleblower Program, 40% of respondents were still unaware of the SEC’s Whistleblower Program.

How safe is your pension?

We tend to think of pensions as being certain, we'll get the money when we retire. This is especially true if you work for a governmental agency.  But in the 21st century we've learned that getting your pension is not always a given, especially if you work for a governmental agency.  

The bankruptcy of Detroit has brought to light a major reason why many cities have been or will be unable to pay their employees the pension that the employees expect. The actuaries calculating the pensions for governmental agencies have failed to take into account the fact that a dollar today is not the same as a dollar tomorrow when the pension must be paid; they fail to discount the future payments to today's dollars. Further, they assume fairly high rates of return (currently, 7-8%) which means the city has to contribute less.  Then, they want to keep the pension contributions fairly steady from year to year, so they ignore big swings in the market.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Commission (PBGC) was established by the federal government to step in when a company's pension is unable to meet the company's obligations.  Unfortunately, PBGC has problems of its own.

Maybe, we should just put our money under the mattress.

Another Fine for JPMorgan Chase

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will fine Chase at least $500,000,000 for manipulating energy prices in Michigan and California.  This follows a six-month suspension of JP's right to sell power.

Chase obviously considers fines and other legal expenses simply the regular costs of doing business.  In the past three years they've spent over $16 billion in litigation costs, which is 12% of their net revenue.  And it does not appear as though these costs will diminish as Chase is being investigated in Britain, Japan and the U.S.

Cooking the Books

There are all sorts of ways to manipulate accounting records to portray things as you wish they were.  One of the ways the Pentagon uses to increase its budgets is its assumptions of the rate of inflation.  It does not use the same measure as other government agencies do.  The result of this difference means that the Pentagon argues that it needs more money just to “stay even” with inflation.  This more money has meant as much as $8 billion in some years.  When you use a different inflation factor, you see that Pentagon spending since 2001 vastly exceeds that of any decade since 1950, and it is notable that the wars of the 1950s and 1960s (Korea and Vietnam) involved far larger deployments of troops and equipment than the wars since 2001.

The Life of a Freelance War Correspondent Sucks

There is little money to be made.  There is intense competition.  Editors want pieces that sell not analyze. And you might die tomorrow.  That's Francesca Borri's view of her life in Syria today.

She makes $70 per article; she is paid the same whether reporting from Aleppo or Rome.  I don't know how she survives as "sleeping in this rebel base, under mortar fire, on a mattress on the ground, with yellow water that gave me typhoid, costs $50 per night; a car costs $250 per day. Not only can you not afford insurance—it’s almost $1,000 a month—but you cannot afford a fixer or a translator. You find yourself alone in the unknown."

Here's an example of Borri's competition: "Like Beatriz, who today pointed me in the wrong direction so she would be the only one to cover the demonstration, and I found myself amid the snipers as a result of her deception. Just to cover a demonstration, like hundreds of others."  Plus, the willingness to undercut the price of a competitor seems to be endemic.

The editors are driving the content of the articles.  "Because the editors back in Italy only ask us for the blood, the bang-bang. I write about the Islamists and their network of social services, the roots of their power—a piece that is definitely more complex to build than a frontline piece. I strive to explain, not just to move, to touch, and I am answered with: “What’s this? Six thousand words and nobody died?” I got this email from an editor about that story: “I’ll buy it, but I will publish it under my staff writer’s name.”

Here's what she has to say about Syria today: "Because Syria is no longer Syria. It is a nuthouse. There is the Italian guy who was unemployed and joined al-Qaeda, and whose mom is hunting for him around Aleppo to give him a good beating; there is the Japanese tourist who is on the frontlines, because he says he needs two weeks of “thrills”; the Swedish law-school graduate who came to collect evidence of war crimes; the American musicians with bin Laden-style beards who insist this helps them blend in, even though they are blonde and six-feet, five-inches tall. (They brought malaria drugs, even if there’s no malaria here, and want to deliver them while playing violin.) There are the various officers of the various UN agencies who, when you tell them you know of a child with leishmaniasis (a disease spread by the bite of a sand fly) and could they help his parents get him to Turkey for treatment, say they can’t because it is but a single child, and they only deal with “childhood” as a whole."

Inequality equals bad health?

That's the argument Sam Pizzigati makes at Alternet.  He bases his argument on a study published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), which found that the United States ranked 27th among 34 industrial nations — despite spending much more on health care than any other nation.  This is quite a change from the '50s when we were considered one of the healthiest nations despite the fact that we smoked heavily, ate a diet that would horrify any 21st-century nutritionist, and hardly ever exercised.

Pizzigati asserts that a significant number of studies have indicated that the real problem is income inequality. The more unequal a society, the studies show, the more unhealthy most everyone in it — and not the poor alone.  The fundamental problem is stress.  The more inequality in a society, the more stress on a daily level. Chronic stress, over time, wears down our immune systems and leaves us more vulnerable to disease. 

This same stress drives people to seek relief in unhealthy habits. They may do drugs or smoke — or eat more “comfort foods” packed with sugar and fat.

Government and Industry Cooperation

DARPA, an agency of the U.S. government, had a large role in creating the Internet.  Here is some work it is doing today with regard to robots.  The robot does look almost human in many ways.   I'm sure it is more agile than many of my contemporaries.

The biggest banks are doing well

Simon Johnson is fairly optimistic that a degree of sanity may return to the banking business.  He argues that U.S. megabanks are doing well despite an increase in regulation, while European banks are doing poorly in their relatively unregulated environment.  He has hopes for the return of Glass-Steagall as Senator McCain has joined Senator Warren & Company in pushing the bill.

He does, however, point out how highly leveraged the banks are; for example, JPMorgan has only 5 to 8 percent of its balance sheet in equity.

Extortion Afghan Style

Afghanistan will not let our trucks carrying military equipment either in or out of the country unless we pay them $1,000 per truck.  Furthermore, the Afghans hope to collect nearly $1 billion in business taxes and fines from U.S. contractors. They claim “It’s a compliance issue, and they’re not complying with our laws.”

As a result, we are flying out much more of our equipment than we had planned.  Naturally, our costs of leaving the country will be higher than planned.

A quiet woman changed the Space Race

Back to the Middle Ages

When I was a student at a Catholic grammar school, we learned about indulgences, or ways to lower the time you would serve in purgatory.  In those days of the 20th century you could obtain indulgences primarily through praying.  In the Middle Ages you could earn indulgences by praying also, but the Church preferred that you pay cash for them; i.e., they sold them.

In this wonderful 21st century the Church has increased the number of ways indulgences may be earned.  Some examples:

• Climbing the Sacred Steps, in Rome (reportedly brought from Pontius Pilate's house after Jesus scaled them before his crucifixion).
• Attending the Catholic World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro.  Or following it closely on television or radio.
• Following the Day on Twitter live.

I had hopes when the current pope was selected.  Now, I'm not so sure.  It's more of the same bs and focus on idiocies.

The 21st century paycheck

When I was a working man, I got paid by check (either handed to me or direct deposited in my bank) or, when I was very young, in cash. Workers in the 21st century have an additional option: prepaid cards which can be cashed at an ATM.  Being an old reprobate who likes cashing checks, I can't understand why this practice is widespread enough that at least 4,600,000 workers - many of whom work in restaurants or retail stores - are paid this way.  I had never heard of this practice until I read Sparrow Chat, a very interesting blog written by RJ Adams.

The fundamental problem with these cards from a worker's point of view is that in most cases fees have to be paid by the worker.  For example, withdrawing money using the ATM typically costs $1.75.  And if you're old-fashioned enough to want a paper statement, that's another $2.95 you give the bank.  Don't lose the card as it will cost you $6 to replace it.  Some users even have to pay $7 inactivity fees for not using their cards.You may think these fees are small, but if you're making minimum wage, they are a significant percentage of your wages.

Some workers have a choice as to how they are paid.  Both choices are expensive.  They can pay a fee to cash their check at a check-cashing service.  Or, they can take the card.  Neither way is the way we should treat people in this country.

The problem is the law

and when the state says it applies. See the last minute of this video.

Why state the obvious?

Elizabeth Warren spoke yesterday in support of the nomination of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.  She said nothing new; the CFPB is doing its job, Cordray has been excellent thus far, he should be nominated.  

She also made this fundamental point which describes our government and its leaders today, “I am new to the Senate, but I don’t understand why this body accepts a system where this kind of political stalemate won’t end in more government or less government but just in bad government – government that lacks the consistency, clarity, and predictability that honest businesses and hard-working families need to plan a future.”

The year for the Amorphophallus titanum

Last week I wrote about the Amorphophallus titanum that was growing in Brussels. Although the plant does not bloom very often, it was blooming more often than normal in Brussels.  It turns out that this may be the year for the plant as it is also blooming in the U.S. Botanical Gardens in DC, as seen below.

This article in the Washington Post had more details about the plant.  First, it really stinks; the stinking is designed to lure carrion insects from miles around.  And, it's quite heavy; its tuber alone may weigh as much as 90 pounds.  It is fed some unusual things.  The grower says, “I used to feed it dead mice two or three times a month. Dead rodents — nothing like ’em.”  Now he feeds it a standard blood, bone and feather meal, as well as a supplement for plants that grow in volcanic soils.

Take advantage of low interest rates today

That's what Barry Ritholtz argues.  Start fixing our infrastructure.  Interest rates will be rising and, with them, the costs of the fix. Here are some things Ritholtz thinks we could work on.

• Our electrical grid consists mostly of wires strung between wooden poles, which may have been innovative in 1850 but is somewhat past its sell-by date today. After Hurricane Sandy, much of New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut lost electrical service for two weeks. The entire grid needs to be hardened, upgraded against cyberattack — and buried underground.

• We can make our road system “intelligent” by using sensors and software to move traffic more quickly and efficiently than the current “dumb” system does. The productivity boost and fuel savings make this a big return on investment.

• Bridges that are well past their life expectancy should not simply wait to fail. We should be actively replacing these. The alternative is waiting for random events — like the truck crash that caused the Washington state Skagit River bridge collapse — to cause a disaster.

• The United States’ cellular network is a decade behind Europe’s and Asia’s coverage and reliability. Mandate better minimum service requirements and make available cheap financing to wireless providers to do so. We can do the same with broadband as well. 

• The interstate highway system has been one of the lasting legacies of the Eisenhower administration. It is time for a full upgrade of this economic multiplier.

It makes sense but it's not going to happen

Stephen Walt proposes that we end our military aid to both Egypt and Israel.

The government of Egypt was overthrown by a coup, which, according to our laws, should result in our stopping aid.  Further, Egypt does not need the sophisticated weapons we supply; it needs more-effective government, less corruption, economic growth, lower food prices, more reliable water and energy supplies, etc., etc.

Israel really does not need our annual military gift of $3+ billion.  It is quite well off. Its per capita income is nearly $30,000 per year.  And it is the dominant military power in the region.  Requiring Israel to do something positive with this money - such as dismantling settlements in the West Bank and allowing the Palestinians to create a viable state of their own on these lands - might actually enable peace in the region.

Another Brazilian Tale

The cow weighed a ton. The roof was weak. The cow was grazing on a hill behind the house and decided to step on the roof.

Joao Maria de Souza, 45, was lying in bed when the animal fell on him. He died the next day.

A Hard Time in Brazil

A few weeks ago I commented on the protests in Brazil and indicated that Dilma Roussef, the president of Brazil, was moving to address the protesters' issues.  Well, it seems that she might be like Barack, she can speak well but has problems actually doing anything. 

She planned to spend more on education and health care; the money would come from oil royalties.  The problem is that the royalties do not yet exist.  First, she favored convoking a constitutional assembly to address issues, then she favored holding a plebiscite. Her plan to address health issues by importing foreign doctors has met with protests by Brazilian doctors, who appear to be underpaid and overworked in comparison with many of their peers in other countries.

Many have commented that Roussef is in over her head.  A couple of typical comments:

“In a situation like this, the only thing you can do is try to take the initiative and define the agenda. But what’s worrisome here is that there doesn’t seem to be an agenda, only ad-libbing.” 
“The government has been living in a certain isolation, a kind of comfort zone after 10 years, because everything seemed to be going so well. We were flying on cruise control, ‘Everything is fine, Captain,’ and now we’ve run into this big turbulence.”

India, land of epidemics?

In the early days of the 21st century India was touted as one of the next major world powers.  But, as the century has moved along, the sheen has gone off.  The economy has soured.  Sexual abuse of women and children has become a common story.  The shortcomings of government leaders are evident.  And, today, we learn that India has about 1,500 epidemics, which, to me, seems a very large number.  Today's NY Times talks of one of the newer epidemics.  

This epidemic seems to have begun in a small town in India in 1995.  Each year it is rampant from mid-May until the monsoons begin in July and then it disappears.  The epidemic affects only young children.  It arrives quickly and can kill a child soon after onset; about 30% of those affected die. While it an an epidemic, it does not spread in the traditional person-to-person way, like the flu or tuberculosis.
 Unlike the flu or tuberculosis, little is really known about the disease other than it is a form of brain swelling, or encephalitis.  Doctors have yet to discover the cause(s) of the disease.  Our C.D.C. is working on the problem, but is still in the dark as to its causes.

Get rid of the presidency

That's the advice of Bruce Ackerman with regards to Egypt.  If Egypt does not, it is likely that the Muslim Brotherhood will once more win the presidency, a situation that the military would not accept, which, in turn, would totally sour the Brotherhood on any future attempts at democracy.

Ackerman feels that in a parliamentary election the Islamists would not win a majority but woud likely be the top vote getter.  Thus, they would have to seek support from secularists to get anything done.

Is he ascribing too much sanity to the Islamists?

WOW!!

Fukushima continues to leak into the ocean

The water keeps coming into the basements of the damaged reactor buildings and becoming contaminated.  Despite being able to pump the water out, the inflow cannot be stopped as they don't know where the leaks are coming from nor how to stop them.  As a result, radioactive cesium, tritium and strontium are leaking into the ocean; they raise the risks of cancer in humans.

A reusable space rocket?

That's the hope of Elon Musk. He plans to colonize Mars at some point.  Being able to reuse rockets would significantly lower costs. Of course, the one shown below rose only 1,000 feet.  But who knows what this may lead to.

Another entry in the Worst Congress Sweepstakes

Last month I reported about the shenanigans of Brazil's Congress. This month let's look at India.  Thirty percent of the members of India's lower house of parliament have criminal cases against them.  At the state level the percentage is the same. These cases include serious charges such as rape, murder and kidnapping.  However, one study found no difference in the actions of those legislators who have been charged with crimes as opposed to those who have not been charged.

$23,000,000 here, $23,000,000 there

Did you know that in the next fiscal year we will be spending about $560,000,000 on a particular type of nuclear bomb, B61, the effectiveness of which is questioned by some in the Air Force?  Our Congress in its wisdom decided that the Department of Energy was not asking for enough for this program.  Ergo, they bumped it up by $23,700,000.

The B61 is only one nuclear weapon program.  The entire program will cost us $7.675 billion in the next year; this is $98,000,000 more than was budgeted this year.  

I guess the cold war is heating up.

Dead men can't testify

The Moscow trial of Sergei Magnitsky has concluded; he was found guilty of tax fraud.  Unfortunately, Mr. Magnitsky was not around to hear the verdict.  He died in 2009.  Magnitsky had unearthed what he felt was a tax fraud by Russian officials.  When he reported it to the authorities, he was accused of fraud.  Although he was ill when he was arrested, there are questions as to whether his treatment in jail accelerated his death.

I wonder how much time, effort and money was expended on this trial.

An adult at 11?

The President of Chile was surprised when an 11-year-old girl who was raped by her mother's boyfriend used "words showing depth and maturity when she said that, despite the pain caused by the man who raped her, she wanted to have and take care of her baby.”  Her mother also considers her an adult as the rapes over a two year period (from age 9 to 11) were, in the mother's words, consensual.  The victim also displayed her maturity, “It will be like having a doll in my arms. I’m going to love the baby very much, even though it comes from that man who hurt me.”

What manner of human beings are these people?

A Break-In

That's the head of  19-foot python that broke through the ceiling of a store in Australia.  However, it was hiding when the police came to investigate what was initially thought a break-in.  Eventually, the snake came out of its hiding place and was removed from the store and sent back into the wilderness.

Tim is doing okay

Geithner is now earning a few dollars by making speeches, mainly to those in the world of finance.  His biggest payday was $200,000 from Deutsche Bank.  He was paid $100,000 for speeches given to Blackstone and Warburg Pincus.  That's not bad for a few hours work.  Ryan Chittum thinks the fat paychecks are recompense to Tim for the help he gave the banks during the Great Recession.

The Treasury and the Media

Steven Brill doesn't think the media is doing a good job covering the Treasury.  He can't understand why after 3 years and 3 months the Treasury postponed for a year the Obamacare requirement that employers with 50 or more employees must provide health insurance or pay a penalty of $2,000 per employee.  The Treasury said that the rules, instructions, and reporting forms necessary to implement the requirement could not be written in time. Why did it take them so long to admit they couldn't get the job done?  How complex could it have been?  Yet, the media has accepted that 'explanation'.  

Why Brill asks does the media assume that things are okay at the Treasury.  

Is there any reason to assume that things are fine at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, or that Treasury is doing a good job selling bonds or enforcing trade sanctions against terrorists or rogue countries, such as Iran? What about collecting taxes and nailing tax cheats?

Didn't most of this happen on Tim's watch?

One use for Legos

Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be.

That's what Jonathan Turley thinks. He cites four areas where Obama has exceeded Nixon in creating the imperial presidency: Warrantless surveillance, Unilateral military action, Kill lists and Attacking whistle-blowers.  But, to quote Pogo, the problem is us, for Turley concludes his article with the following:

We appear to have grown weary of the republic and traded it for promises of security from a shining political personality. Somewhere, Nixon must be wondering how it could have been this easy.

   

Amorphophallus titanum blooms in Brussels

This eight-foot tall flower, which is native to Sumatra, generally blooms every four or five years.  Since its move to Brussels in 2008, the flower has bloomed three times. Is there something in the Brussels air?

Intentionally deceiving Congress is okay

At least with the DOJ, as it has done nothing about James Clapper's lying to Congress, which is a felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison for each offense. The DOJ of previous administrations went after and convicted administration officials of misleading Congress as part of the Iran-contra scandal.  The Obama DOJ prosecuted Roger Clemens for deceiving Congress.  Is lying about taking steroids a greater crime than lying about spying?

One more problem

Of course we need something else to worry about.  And Lester Brown has given it to us: wheat will soon be a scarce commodity.  The leading producers of wheat in Europe have not increased their yields very much in the 21st century. In Asia the situation is the same. Brown is not some nutter or does not appear to be.  He is a MacArthur Fellow, founder of the Worldwatch Institute and founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute.  He notes, "Since 1950, grain yields across the world have tripled. Those days are gone. The pace has slowed. Between 1950 and 1990, the world grain yield increased by an average 2.2% a year. Since then the rise has slowed to 1.3%."  If Brown is right, how do we feed the 3 billion or so more people who will be occupying the earth in the next 35 years?

McDonald's is not the devil

That's the conclusion of David Freedman.  In fact, he thinks that the wholesome food movement is ignoring reality.  Reality, in Freedman's view, is that many wholesome foods, in fact, have more fats and more calories than that McDonald's burger. Reality is that most wholesome foods cost too much for the obese populations.  Reality is that most fast food producers have made their meals less fatty and obesity-inducing.