Assorted Stuff for October

That Unfortunate Website

Well, the federal ACA website has bombed big-time.  The O is taking the heat, but we should remember he's not personally responsible for everything.  On the other hand, his people did sign the contracts with the private sector contractors who screwed it all up.

Unfortunately, we no longer are allowed to create federal agencies to take care of such major efforts.  We have to divvy up the money to be made on such projects among private sector contractors, probably because the public sector doesn't have enough lobbyists.

Holderman v. Dimon

It appears that J.P.Morgan-Chase will be paying 13 billion bucks to resolve most of its liabilities from the mortgage crisis.  Maybe it's not entirely fair, because Dimon's bank didn't own WaMu or Morgan-Stanley when they racked up lots of the losses.

What the hell.  J.P.Morgan-Chase picked up WaMu and Morgan-Stanley at bargain basement prices.  Dimon didn't have to be goosed along too hard, and at the moment, it seems that his farts still don't stink.

The whole thing is making Holderman look better than usual — to wit, he's doing something other than chasing down leakers.  Is 13 billion enough?  Who knows?

Afghanistan

As in Iraq, we're having problems leaving troops behind after the scheduled "withdrawal," because we want our troops to be immune from local and national law.  Murder?  Rape?  Really, we'd rather try them back home.

Personally, I don't see the problem.  Afghanistan is so corrupt, it should be fairly inexpensive to bail the naughty boys out of their trouble, not that I necessarily approve.  On the other hand, some Special Forces asshole could wind up being a political asset for whoever happens to replace Karzai.

If we don't leave any troops behind, it is quite likely that Congress will decide to stop financing the Afghan military.  That's okay by me.  They hate us and our imperialism pretty much all over the world, so Afghanistan should not be especially "special."

Short Subjects

Banking Committee kisses Dimon's ass

Is anybody surprised?  The JPM PAC hands out a load of money to members of the banking committee, and Congress really is not interested in banking reform or they'd have brought back Glass-Steagall instead of farting around with the Volcker Rule.


Egyptians notice it was a military coup all along

Hell, even the American press has noticed, at last.   To me, it seemed pretty obvious in February 2011.

When the Mubarak appointed Supreme Court voided the results of the Parliamentary elections and confirmed the right of Mubarak apparatchik Ahmed Shafik to run for the presidency, it became harder to ignore.  That same court gets to supervise counting the votes, so let's try to guess who's going to win.  (Was the US in on it all along?  Well, maybe.)


Obama and his Drones

The rest of the world has had a pretty good idea of the impact of Obama's greatly increased use of Predator Drones for quite a while — especially the people in their target areas — but the American press finally seems to be waking up to the fact that we've been killing a lot more civilians than the Pentagon reports.  I'm willing to bet that a large majority of the American people don't even know we've been using them in Yemen, and that an even larger majority can't find Yemen on a map.

J.P. Morgan Chase, et al.

Here are a few initial premises you are free to accept or reject:

1. The only means by which investment firms succeed are dumb luck and/or insider information.
2. Given the nature of the normal curve, it is reasonable to suspect that the most successful investors depend on insider information.
3. Every once in a while, even the lucky and the insiders must fail.

Following on those premises, it is likely that Jamie Dimon genuinely believes he still is a financial genius when he assigns all blame to Ina Drew.  The lucky CEOs always believe they are geniuses, as do the ones who trade on insider information without getting caught.  (Of course, it doesn't take genius to capture the regulatory agencies — just enough money to buy the right politicians.)

J.P. Morgan got caught in it's own web.  From time time, even the lucky and the insiders must fail.

A restoration of Glass-Steagle is gaining some popularity of late.  If Bill Clinton hadn't been quite so beholden to Wall Street money, Glass-Steagle still might be the law of the land.  If any bill deserved a veto, it was Gramm-Rudman-Hollings.  We really need Glass-Steagle back again.

Personally, I'm of the "Dimon is just another asshole who got lucky" school of thought.  I don't blame Dimon — I blame Clinton (for his cowardice or his greed — who knows which?)  Dimon is incapable of recognizing what a turd he truly is — he's convinced (because he was lucky for a while at the right time) he actually knows more than the rest of us.  Well, apparently, he was wrong.