Socialism

From the desk of H-Ross Parrot Now, before I get started, I just want to clear one thing up: a lot of people keep talking about how this is Socialism. This is a major and serious misconception. See, with Socialism, you get things like, for example, Socialised Medicine (notice the "Socialised" in "Socialised Medicine", which is a clue in case y'all are wondering). OK now stay with me here, people. Here's the hard part, so take a deep breath first: with Socialism, you fork over a whole bunch of your money to Big Government, and in return, you get things like Health, Education and Welfare (which has a ring to it, don't it? Health, Education and Welfare). OK now, I know that was hard, but stay with me here: in America you give a whole bunch of money to Big Government, and you get basically nothing in return, or maybe ten cents on the dollar or something. You sure as heck don't get Health or Education, and the Corporations make out better on the Welfare angle than anyone else. So all these bailouts and such and letting Hank declare himself a God are not socialism, because all y'all will get in return is a whole extra big pile of debt (which will be defaulted on anyway so you don't really need to worry about that except for when all your money also becomes worthless afterwards and a single Freedom Fry in France will cost you one hundred million dollars or just a pound of any other recyclable paper. OK now, are y'all still with me? Any questions? Y'all get the Not Socialism part? The basic message remains the same: Obey! In other news: See here, now, it's just like I said: Alien Banksters! He talks about other stuff too, but trust me on this, Alien Banksters are behind it. .... What happened on September 18-19 took years of preparation, capped by a faux ideology crafted by public-relations think tanks to be broadcast under emergency conditions to panic Congress - and voters - right before the presidential election. This seems to be our September election surprise. Under staged crisis conditions, Pres. Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson are now calling for the country to come together in a War on Defaulting Homeowners. This is said to be the only hope to "save the system." (What system is this? Not industrial capitalism, or even banking as we know it.) The largest transformation of America's financial system since the Great Depression has been compressed into just two weeks, starting with the doubling of America's national debt on September 7 with the nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.....

Mozilla: redesign or die!

OK, I've just had to kill my browser and email, destroying about 15 minutes of work-in-progress, because the piece-of-crap Flash plugin went into a forever() loop, which it does so very very often, and so I had to kill the whole mess off. This happens at least once a day on average. OK, now, Mozilla, meaning Firefox and Seamonkey and all that, I hate to be the one to break this to you but, basically, your code sucks, bless yer heart. I went into the Mozilla source years ago and it was the most godawful giant mess of C++ I'd ever seen. So many templates and overloaded crap and what have you that it was impossible to tell what would actually happen if you moved the mouse or anything, except that it would be a lot. Way too much. Maybe things have improved. I doubt it. OK, now, so along comes Google, and they say, "Why, this is really stupid. This mess should be compartmentalised into processes, so one bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch." That's Philosophy, by the way. Descartes or someone said that first. OK, now stay with me here, folks. I know this is complicated, but basically it comes down to this: Mozilla, trash your whole basic design if necessary, but firewall them stinkin' plugins into separate processes, or maybe threads if that will suffice (but I doubt it) or you're toast. History. You can go hang around with Mosaic and Netscape and the other Ghosts of Browsers Past, because all your bases are belong to Google Chrome, which I plan on switching to just the very first minute that a pre-alpha starts working on Linux, OK? I mean, Google already knows everything about me even before I do anyway, so why mess with middlemen? It's just that simple, folks.

Cassius Mundus on Industrial Civilisation

I would like to note one of the fundamental determinants of current social, political and financial structures, which may receive too little consideration: that they are fundamentally industrial and technical in nature, and could not exist without our present state of industry and techne. This was noted by John Keegan, I think in his book on War One, in which he referred to the industrialisation of warfare: how the machine gun was essentially industrial killing, mass destruction instead of mass production. I'm sure it has been much discussed elsewhere. I state no conclusions or proposals here other than to suggest that industrialisation and computerisation are profoundly fundamental to things ranging from this blog as a means of communication to current political systems, including but not limited to Marxism, Capitalism and Fascism. Any plan, platform or project for the future will instantiate within this context, which can be expected to continually alter towards greater technical capacity, with unpredictable effects.

Bulletin from the National Bureau of Standards

Bulletin from the National Bureau of Standards Negative numbers are banned in the United States with immediate effect. Or ye'll walk the plank. Positive integers are deprecated, an only a damn sea-lawyer would use'em anyway. Irrational and Imaginary numbers are now the Official Numbering Systems (ONS) of the United States. Capn's orders and no back-talk. An announcement from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing regarding changes to the currency of the United States will follow. Pieces of eight, me buccoes, pieces of eight! BULLETIN/USNBS/EOT/ARRRRRRRRR

Ban on Short-Selling Will Hurt Rather Than Help Broker-Dealers

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Avast, ye scurvy short-sellin' dogs! Heave to an' strike yer colors, or ye'll be boarded and scuttled! An' there'll be no mutterin' about any of the financial pirate-ships which their capn's is friends with the Cap'n, or I'll run ye thru, so help me I will! Now shove off an buy financials or its tied to the cathead and 40 lashes for you, an yer grog stopped for a month, ye mangy pack of sea-lawyer scrubs! Today is officially Talk Like A Pirate Day 2008. In fact, September 19th falls on a Friday this year, so folks are making plans for an extended Talk Like A Pirate weekend. Let us know about yours! It's just that simple, folks! My brokerage house is acting weird on the Net today. Can't do this, can't retrieve that, something else timing out. Are they being boarded and scuttled? My SKF and SRS have been burnt to the waterline, so where's my bailout? Everyone else gets a bailout, so I want one too! WAAAAAHHH! WANT BAILOUT NOW!!!

Ban on Short-Selling Will Hurt Rather Than Help Broker-Dealers

Alien Giant Schistosome has a posse

Stocks Rally on Plan for Government Equity Infusions, Continued Pursuit of Evil Shorts OK, now, stay with me here, and I'll try to explain it, with the help of Earl over here. Fortunately, Earl is insured by Mutual of Ohama AIG the full faith and credit of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, or this could be dangerous. OK, now, Earl represents civilisation. Now, notice the alien schistosome that has leapt onto Earl's face and knocked him down, making him appear to be stone-dead. The giant schistosome is Too Big to Fail, and that's all you need to know about that. OK, now here comes Hank, and he says, we must cut this alien pod-thing from Earl's face, and he nicks it a bit (now, that represents Lehman) and it bleeds a weird molecular acid and generally via alien sign language makes it known that if anyone tries to cut it off, it will turn into a Black Hole, kill Earl, me, and Hank, and then drop straight thru the center of the Earth and kill a bunch of Chinese people and then come back here and so on. Not Good. OK, so Hank says, clearly we cannot remove this Alien Fruiting Body from Earl's face without killing everyone, and so we must Obey. Giant Schistosome 3 KG 700 cm has a posse OBEY!

Who's Next?

Ripples across the pond

Who’s next? Last time I checked, GS was spinning around 100 just like that little guy in the boat in the toilet-cleaner add (maybe that didn’t run over there in Blighty). Of course, MS wasn’t looking too healthy either. In fact, they were last seen nearing 17, right about where MER was before they were allegedly acquired (not that MER or BAC are looking so good today either).

Now, stay with me here: “Giant Suckin’ Sound.”

Me, I’ve got puts on all of them. Dawgies, lookat’em go! YEEEEEEEEE-Hawwwwwwww!

Cash to the Rescue

"Helicopter Ben Starts the Printing Press (Updated)"

BULLETIN FROM THE CASH MUNDY STRATEGIC FINANCIAL RESERVE

Free! It's all Free! And there's a whole bunch more where that came from, Earl! Ol' Cash may control $2.3 trillion, but he ain't about to forget Main Street, Bison Forks, Texas, nor Main Street, Santa Cruz, Cali-forn-I-A, neither! Yeeeeeeeeeeee-Hawwwwwww! [Minion's Missive: 4th refueling. We have been over the California coastline for some hours. Mr Mundy is hurling garbage bags full of paper from the loading ramp. They explode when they hit the slipstream: quite pretty, really. He has ordered ten thousand toner cartridges delivered with the next refueling.] BULLETIN/CMSFR/EOT

Earl Gets his American Spirit back

"Fed Ponders Provides $85 Billion Rescue for AIG (Update: Now Official)" Earl is a real inspiration to me. I'll have to go look him up in Santa Cruz someday. An American we can all be proud of.

Dear Hank: Thank you for your speedy reply. It restores my faith in my Federal Government, and politicians in general. And I do apologize for my weakness in the moment. I’ve been bent over grabbing my ankles since last Friday night, and the blood rushing to my head has caused me great confusion. But, as a good Lemming American, I’ve sucked it up once again and have come up with a plan. I’ve decided to knock over the local branch of the Shadow Banking System, (SBS), but I’m having a real problem finding the damned thing, and felt really bad about it until I realized that you, and Ben, haven’t found the World Head Quarters either. So we’re in this together Hank. And one more request: In the event that I do find my local SBS Branch I would like you and Ben to go ahead and do one more of your many recent regulation hand wavings and make derivatives as fungible at my local market as Food Stamps. It would be a great help. Very truly yours, Earl L. Crockett Santa Cruz “Green and Mean” CA.

Those Fed Rat-Bastards!

"Fed Ponders Provides $85 Billion Rescue for AIG (Update: Now Official)"

I had no idea Hank was so heartless!

Dear Earl, We would like to help out, we really would, but we're just not geared up to write a check for $000,000,005,000 Billion. We'd have to retool, and it would be an accounting nightmare. Also, America wasn't made the great nation it was by people thinking small. Face it, Earl, a few hundred people asking for a payout that none of us here can even count down to amount to nothing more than collateral damage. If you can arrange to overthrow an elected government somewhere, and kill at least a thousand or so bystanders in the process, get back to us. Otherwise, you need to quit whining and take one for the team like a good lemming American. And another thing: when was the last time Santa Cruz elected a Republican? Face it, Earl, there are probably more registered Greens there than Republicans. Maybe you should ask the Japanese instead. It's been a tough week, and I have an early tee time tomorrow, so I've gotta run. But we're here to help, so drop us a line any time and best of luck. Hank

Earl's Story

"Fed Ponders Provides $85 Billion Rescue for AIG (Update: Now Official)"

It just hurt my heart to read this, and I just had to share it with y'all.

Dear Henry and Ben: There is a tragic, almost systemic, breakdown about to occur at the end of the month in my home town of Santa Cruz, CA. If I can’t make my payments due shortly (no pun intended) it will devastate not only my children and wife, but the local mortgage company (20 employees), my auto repair shop where my car is presently being repaired (10 employees), my local market (50 employees), and their wine staff (5 employees), and the local car wash (also 20 employees). This is just a beginning example that will ripple through our town to hundreds and even maybe thousand of innocent person including those that used to make a decent living pan handling quarters on our Downtown Pacific Garden Mall. Think of the devastation! And all of this can be avoided. Please remit $000,000,005,000 Billion to me by Fed Ex over night on the same terms that you just extended to Lehman and AIG. You know I’m good for it. Very truly yours, Earl L. Crockett Santa Cruz, CA

Breaking the Buck

"Fed Ponders Provides $85 Billion Rescue for AIG (Update: Now Official)"

UPDATE FROM THE CASH MUNDY STRATEGIC TRADING COMMAND Reserve Primary Money Fund Falls Below $1 a Share...known as breaking the buck Slim Pickins! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-Dawgies! YEEEEEEEEE-Haw! [Underling's commentary: Mr Mundy loaded the double-wide in the Globemaster on Sunday, just finished third refueling. Mr Mundy last seen riding a bull off of loading ramp. For the second time tonight. Brighton seems very very far away.] UPDATE/CMSTC/EOT

Goldman Profit Falls 70%

"Goldman Profit Falls 70%"

Yee Haw! Look at my +GSMT Jan@100 puts go! Still $30 out-of-the-money and already trading well over $10! [Lackey's note: Mr Mundy is spending far too much time in his Trading Bunker, where he has "Ice Station Zebra" running on at least three of his monitors. At last report he was seen spinning in his chair cackling "I'm Rich, Byatch!" An American nouveau riche, and a Texan at that... the Horror... I'd retire to Brighton, but he pays too well and also has my passport.]

Mother of All Black Holes

(Editor's Note: Mr Mundy is so far in the money that it has gone to his head and he has taken to referring to himself in the Third Person, and may buy himself a cult or two. We hope this is only a temporary aberration.) Cash wants to set the record straight on one thing: if the financials were on a rafting trip (you know, one of those team-building corporate field-trips), it would be in Class V (Eastern Scale) water at floodstage. Y'all might have seen Deliverance? Ol' Cash happens to have run the Chattooga a time or two, and in this case, last night the Guide fell out of the raft at Entrance to the Five Falls, today the raft went into Corkscrew and flipped, and now everyone is in the water swimming towards such famous drownin' machines as Crack In The Rock and Sock'em Dog. Hank, Ben and Tim are on river left with throw-bags, except that in their excitement they forgot you're supposed to hold onto the rope and throw the bag, and they are just hurling everything including their PFDs and Tevas into the river, possibly in a not entirely senseless attempt to partially slake the gluttonous lust of Earl the River God and his Dread Double-Recirculators so that maybe at least one of the swimmers makes it. Just so you know. But the 7-dimensional chimera who's 3+1-space world-line signature is referred to as "Cash" feels that y'all should know that what has actually happened is that when LEH imploded, so much liquidity concentrating in one place and then disappearing could only indicate one thing... Yes, you guessed it: those whackjobs protesting the LHC had the right idea, but they were lysdexic; it was actually LEH that would start the Mother of All Black Holes. Already you can barely see AIG and WM, they are so close to the event-horizon, and while BAC heroically tried to pull MER out, it just pulled itself further into the accretion disc, where it is spinning along with GS, MS and the rest. Remember Cash's pardner H. Ross Perot and his Giant Suckin' Sound? Now there's a light-show to go with it, mostly in the X-ray spectrum. The long and short of it is, we're all Doomed; in fact, in the long run, we're all Dead. But in the meantime, Cash is taking care of some business and would like to buy a suitable cult, ideology unimportant, serious inquiries only. He stashed some money in an International Bond Fund today, and also has a good supply of shiny glass beads in reserve.

Tonkin Persian Gulf Resolution

One time-honored response to difficult economic times, especially popular among nations with a propensity for violence, is a war of choice. Broad emergency powers, unlimited deficit spending, semi-mandatory contributions from allied countries, what's not to like? H. Con. Res 362 demands that the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran’s nuclear program.... While what is clearly a war resolution is widely discussed in alternative news sources, a web-search shows the MSM has nothing, repeat nothing about this. No doubt the fact that this Iran War resolution is AIPAC-driven and the fact that the MSM makes no mention of it are purely coincidental. When the US stopped oil exports to Japan in 1941, war with Japan became inevitable (no doubt Roosevelt took this into account, as he needed a casus belli). Attempting to inspect things entering and leaving Iran is an unmistakable act of war. Prohibiting the movement of Iranian officials almost certainly is also. The goal would be to start another non-declared war and get Iran to fire the first actual shot (or failing that just blow up some tall buildings or whatnot and say they did it). While this could be sold as just what the country needs in difficult economic times, it would be in fact yet another breathtaking act of treason, of elected officials acting on behalf of a foreign power in whose pay they are to the great detriment of the US. Treason, pure and simple, no other word for it. While there might be a short term (1 to six months maybe?) dead-cat bounce, the outcome would be to rapidly accelerate the demise of the US as a world power (the Iraq war having already done quite a bit in that direction). While there is already speculation about the possibility of a US default, starting another war of any substance would make it a certainty: it would be apparent to foreign creditors such as China that the US debt could never actually be repaid except by hyperinflation of the dollar. It is also my opinion that Russia and/or China have signaled they might respond militarily to a US incursion into Iran (a little bombing here and there being all well and good among friends).

Configuration-Space, Transition Probabilities, and Time

NB: I am no physicist, so take nothing that follows as at all authoritative, valid or meaningful. I've been thinking about Julian Barbour's ideas about time recently. Essentially, the universe can be represented by a configuration space (or state- or phase-space, not sure which is most appropriate) each point of which represents one possible state of the universe. This space is essentially a state-vector for the entire universe. Each point in it has an amplitude, which can for our purposes be considered as a probability. Julian Barbour argues in The End of Time that time has no actual existence. What appears to us to be the flow of time is a path thru the state-space connecting high-probability points (I've probably got this somewhat wrong, but am on the right track). I've been wondering if there is some way we could legitimately consider amplitudes for transitions between points in the space instead of amplitudes for points in the space itself. An immediate risk of tautology emerges: we may be implying time by referring to motion, change or transition of any kind. Assuming we can essentialy square our original space and produce a space each point of which is the probability of transition between two points in the original space, the question then arises: is the probability of transition from state B to state A always the same as the probability of transition from state A to state B? Classical physics should tell us it is, that time has no arrow and all transitions are fully reversible. However, there is some experimental evidence which casts doubt in this, tho' it is by no means disproved. (Search 'time symmetry'). What if we need to cube our original space, and have separate probabilities for transitions A->B and B->A? Any inequality between these probabilities would imply a local preferred direction in time, if by time we mean just transitions from one state to another. A path thru this space connecting points that had similar assymetries would create a high-probability sequence in one direction (imagine a dropped egg breaking) and a low-probability sequence in another (a dropped egg reassembling). Assuming we are not simply committing a tautology by basing an idea of time on ideas of transition, we could start with a source in the state-space (the Big Bang Singularity) and find high-probability transitions from that singularity leading to other high-probability transitions and in this way delineate probable world-lines, with a clear preferred direction, ending if you like in a state-space sink such as a possible Big Crunch. This seems consistent with a Many-Worlds interpretation. It might be legitimate to prune the space a bit by eliminating transitions that violate we take to be impossible, such as all the mass in the universe moving instantaneously to a small South Pacific island, and other things involving faster-than-light travel or violating conservation laws. Then again, it might not. If we can prune the space, we go from a universe-cubed space to a much sparser path-space. Normally in a state-space, each point can be traversed by only one path. If that is true in our universal space, then each path is a world-line forever separate from all others, and the underlying structure is that of a directed graph originating in the Big-Bang source. Conceivably the graph, the transitions, are more fundamental than the original state-space. I'm quite certain these ideas are either generally-accepted commonplaces or viewed as elementary misconceptions among actual physicists. I'm just sort of musing out loud because they interested me enough to comment on them, and I don't personally know anyone who thinks much about this sort of thing.

The Handmaid's Tale

Palin and her dim-bulb bible-beating compatriots are straight out of the "Handmaid's Tale", at least in their dreams. And the one book one will find in their libraries and bookstores (in as many shapes, sizes and colors as the works of Lenin came in in the East Berlin bookshop back when I hopped over Checkpoint Charlie and had a look) says: And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men....when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret... ...(but then they never wuz much on readin' not like them pointy-headed Harvard types)... And to compare Palin with la Presidenta Michelle Batchelet (heard her speak in Valdivia: impressive), a physician tortured by the Christo-Fascist pet Pinochet, or even Cristina Fernandez de Kerchner... Since the Christo-Fascists as a rule hate and fear furriners and other countries, they will never realize that the US is now viewed more with pity and contempt than with fear in South America and among the numerous Asians and Europeans I spent time with there. I will give the Bible-Beating Bushites one thing: they sure know how to quickly ruin a country, to reduce what was once a rich and powerful empire, variously loved, hated, feared and admired, but certainly respected as a power by friend and foe alike, to a country skirting bankruptcy whose most visible distinguishing marks on a global scale are how fat Americans are and how stupid they appear to have become.

WSJ background info on KDB

Maybe they actually do want LEH for more than just access to the Fed TAF.

A Dossier on Lehman’s Prospective Bosses: Korea Development Bank

Posted by Heidi N. Moore

Korea Development Bank may be a blank slate to many Americans; in fact, there have been virtually no profiles written of the Korean government’s financial powerhouse, which was described recently as “old and reckless” in the Korea Times . But now that KDB is in talks to lead an investment in beleaguered investment bank Lehman Brothers, it’s time to get acquainted.

And best to do it quickly, because KDB will soon change completely: it plans to seek a public listing by 2009 and leave government ownership by 2011. It also wants to buy banks overseas and expand its investment banking presence. Deal Journal took a look at the institution that could be calling the shots at Lehman.

Korean Kabuki: Enter Merrill

Korea is also in the market for junk Merrill assets. Seems like an odd reaction to a sliding currency and economy. Merrill May Fail to Sell Bad Loans to Korea Asset (Update1)

By Bomi Lim

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Merrill Lynch & Co.'s talks to sell a ``significant'' amount of nonperforming loans to Korea Asset Management Corp. are faltering because of a dispute over price, the Korean firm's chief executive officer said.

``We have yet to reach an agreement because of differences in assessing the value of assets,'' Lee Chol Hwi said yesterday in an interview in Seoul. ``We have been seeking to buy a significant amount, but a deal may be difficult at this rate.''

Merrill CEO John Thain, who took over in December, has sold assets and disposed of mortgages at a discount to keep the third- largest U.S. securities firm afloat amid more than $50 billion of credit market losses. Lee, 55, said state-run Korea Asset can afford to be patient because the U.S. financial crisis is likely to deepen, adding that he's also in talks about buying bad loans from companies including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

LEH Kabuki: more of the brides blush

Banks Deny Consortium Plan to Buy Lehman Bros. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200809/200809040009.html The Korea Development Bank is trying to form a consortium to buy Lehman Brothers, America's fourth largest investment bank, but other Korean banks on Wednesday denied they want to join. Woori Financial Group in a press release said it "neither received an offer nor considered it on our own." Shinhan Financial Group said it had “no intention to buy Lehman Brothers, including joining a consortium, not have we reviewed the possibility." Hana Financial Group also denied joining hands with the KDB to buy the troubled investment house. KDB, however, has already sent a letter of intent to buy a 25 percent stake of Lehman Brothers after forming a consortium with Korean banks and is waiting for an answer from Lehman.

MUFG rejects report to invest in Lehman 11:05pm EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group said it has no plans to invest in U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers , rejecting a media report that it may bid for a stake. Full Article

Kabuki: Lehman and a Cast of Thousands

A cloud of rumors and denials surrounding Asian acquisitions of LEH. While this has been going on for a while with KDB, recently HSBC and an "unnamed Chinese bank" were tossed into the rumor mill:

HSBC, Chinese Bank Reported To Be Interested in Lehman

One of the pet notions of M&A is that anything can be solved by price. Thus even a garbage barge embattled institution like Lehman might could be a screaming bargain at the right level. So it's possible that HSBC and the unnamed Chinese bank are indeed interested in Lehman, but "interested" covers a multitude of sins. I came up with one possible explanation:

Cash Mundy said...

Reading about Korea's need to defend the won and difficulties doing so due to illiquid GSE holdings, it occurred to me that there might be a subtext to KDB's apparently nonsensical LEH bid, somehow resulting in the "Fannie, Freddie and other US-related agency" paper turning into cash or treasuries as a quid-pro-quo for rescuing LEH. I read Jesse's posting, and it looks like "a Wall Street Bond trader" has the same idea. From Jesse: Curiouser and curiouser. A Wall Street bond trader of our acquaintance has suggested that Hank made some princely gestures vis à vis Korea's huge holdings of Fannie and Freddie in return for some sugar on the Lehman problem. Maybe a stealth uncompensated taxpayer bailout of LEH, FNM and FRE can be quietly packaged up and sold in this way.

Jesse reported that Mitsubishi was put forward, then denied interest:

Jesse said...

Yep. the Mitsubishi interest floated out by The Times has also turned out to be a false rumour. curiouser and curiouser. http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2008/09/times-of-london-report-another-false.html