Links 12/5/09

Former SAC Capital Employee Details Forced Oral Sex, Hormone Use, Sodomy, And Cross Dressing Clusterstock. All they could do in mainstream movies was the pretty tame The Secretary; real life is always more lurid. Now plenty of folks on Wall Street have demanding and unusual tastes, but expecting your employee to satisfy them is very tacky.

Woman arrested for trying to record ‘Twilight’ on digital camera Chicago Sun Times

The World Needs Further Monetary Ease, Not an Early Exit Joseph Gagnon

Jobs Summit Charade: Is the government out of money, or is Obama completely misguided? Marshall Auerback, New Deal 2.0

The Decade in One Page Eugene Linden

NFIB Jobs Statement: Expect Coal in Small Business Stockings, National Federation of Independent Business (hat tip reader Scott, who points out that this report is very much at odds with Friday’s employment release).

Treasury secretary challenges Goldman aid claims Financial Times. While I’m glad to see him arguing with Goldman’s utter BS, it is awfully late for Timmy to be trying to grow a set. The usual rule in politics when someone starts running a line that is opposed to your objectives is that you have to hit back fast and hard in the next 24 hours. Goldman has been promoting the canard that it didn’t need government assistance for what, months?

10 Reasons Bernanke Should Be Fired Nomi Prins

Antidote du jour (hat tip reader Gary):

At 120 degrees in Australia this January, it was so hot that koalas were asking people for water. It’s never been seen before.

ATT00045

ATT00048

One of our guest bloggers, Marshall Auerback, is in New South Wales now, and I am VERY jealous!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

21 comments

  1. Richard Kline

    The short story _Secretary_ was based on was waaaay hotter. Too bad Mary Gaitskill has never gotten novel length zip in the years since.

    Re: Timmy’s pro forma pip-squeaking at the Big Boys, two words: November election’s. Team Obama woke up the next morning and realized that they have a big, big problem, that the independents they drew in talking about change had walked on their bought-and-sold skanky tokhuses. So no we hear “concerns on deficits.” A few “remonstrances for profiteers.” An end to “expensive stimulus with recovery around the corner.” And other BS-caked tripe. No substantive changes of course, of course. Just feeble attempts at better visuals. Just think, three more years of this worm-squirming (I can barely do so myself). After which a new set of faces will be cut-and-pasted on the same policies.

    Regarding the Oz picks, what I find most remarkable about them of all is the notion that 4 (four) riders [someone’s holding the mobile] are out riding in 120 F. Them Austrines are _tough_ cobbers. (Or more likely mad.)

    1. Michael

      “Regarding the Oz picks, what I find most remarkable about them of all is the notion that 4 (four) riders [someone’s holding the mobile] are out riding in 120 F. Them Austrines are _tough_ cobbers. (Or more likely mad.)”

      From the light it looks to be pretty early in the morning, so probably only around 30 or so (85F)? And besides, if you drink a lot of water and take it a bit easier it isn’t all that bad whilst your riding. The breeze cools you, up to a point. Having said that, once you get over about 43 (110F) it is pretty easy to ‘over-cook’ it too and get ill very quickly, but i’m a bit soft :)

      We already had a week over 100F in November – it could be a long hot summer coming up :-/

      1. Richard Kline

        Good to have the break-down on it then, friend. I’ve personally been out in near 100 F, and if you hydrate it’s not too bad, but yeah, my concern was for north of 110, too.

  2. fresno dan

    “Former SAC Capital Employee Details Forced Oral Sex, Hormone Use, Sodomy, And Cross Dressing”

    You say that as if it were a bad thing.

  3. Dan Duncan

    Yves, you still haven’t given us your full review of “Twilight”. Can we expect it this weekend? Thanks!

  4. Hugh

    “A confirmation of Bernanke would affirm that the Fed can do whatever it wants, no matter what the cost, as long as we live under the ethos that making bad decisions is better than making worse ones.”

    That’s a nice quote from Nomi Prins. She also makes a point I have been trying to make recently. Bernanke messed up both the runup and the aftermath of both the housing bubble and the financial meltdown, but what we should really be concerned about is that he is doing it again with the current bubbles and deteriorating fundamentals.

    1. Keenan

      I believe Yves reference to “this January” is to January 2009 …. when the fires raged in Australia

      1. mozzie

        Fires were worst in Victoria (maybe 500 miles south of NSW current fires). I believe YS posted a pic of a firey giving water to a koala.
        This season may be as bad in NSW (high fuel load)… but not yet.
        As noted, it was still very hot in NSW, and the cyclists would have had to contend with this as much as the koalas. I find it interesting that the koal was smart enough to seek water from humans. They are usually unafraid, but quick to warn off humans/defend themselves. With long claws and a “poison” rear claw, they are quite capable.

        1. ozajh

          Koala’s have VVEERRRRYY specialized digestive and excretory systems because of their diet (eucalypt leaves, which are quite toxic).

          They normally don’t drink at all, except maybe to lick dew off leaves at dawn, and also don’t go to ground except to change feed-trees, so this encounter is truly exceptional.

          (They also have small brains, too small to fill their crania, which is thought to be an {d}evolutionary adaptation to a low-energy diet.)

        2. Keenan

          I didn’t know of the “poison” claw on koalas. Lots of venomous creatures in the land and waters “down under”

  5. mechanic

    From William Black:

    “Bush’s financial Wrecking Crew “gave this president an economy falling off the cliff.” Geithner was President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from October 23, 2003 until President Obama chose him as his Treasury Secretary. He was supposed to be the lead regulator of many of the largest bank holding companies. His failures as a regulator were a major cause of the “economy falling off the cliff.” Bernanke held prominent positions in the Bush administration from 2002 to the end of the administration and failed as a regulator and as an economist. Geithner and Bernanke failed to regulate even after the FBI publicly warned in September 2004 that (1) there was an “epidemic” of mortgage fraud and (2) it would lead to a financial crisis if it were not contained. Their refusal to take responsibility for the harm they did our nation as leaders of Bush’s financial Wrecking Crew adds to their unsuitability. Rewarding their perennial failures with a promotion and reappointment represents a dereliction of duty by the Obama administration.”

    As much as I abhor and try to avoid conflict, William Black is right. These two really were major players in destroying the US economy and are not qualified to lead Treasury or the Fed.

  6. Neslo

    http://oahutrading.blogspot.com/

    This Blog
    Linked From Here
    This Blog

    Linked From Here

    Sunday, December 6, 2009
    Bonds as Indicators – 5 Charts
    These bond charts are all permanent links on the right side of my blog…

    Sign up as a follower and then in your “reading list” you can see everytime I do a new post. If you haven’t checked out the “reading list”, get on it. Its very useful.

    Here they are all screen capped for your convenience.

    Posted by Steveo at 11:57 AM 0 comments Links to this post
    Letter to your investment advisor –Vote with your feet
    So thinking in the spirit of Christmas, I was worried about all those Investment Advisors out there who might not get enough of a bonus. After all, their cheerleading has helped this unbelievable recovery. Then I thought…hmmm….they stole the taxpayers money, and then after continuing on a path of systemic risk, they are going to reward themselves with record bonuses, while many go hungry, homeless, live in fear of the future.

    So, consider the following letter which you can use to send to the investor representative and CEO of your favorite bankster.

    Gentlemen and Ladies,

    In light of the fact that excessive leverage and speculation has again been under taken by those who do know better, and has again put our country and it’s citizens under a strong threat of systemic risk.

    In light of the fact that 14% of all homeowners are missing their mortgage payments or are truly already in default, directly related to predatory lending practices.

    In light of the fact that irresponsible “investing” advice has led to a massive transference of wealth which is nothing short of outright thievery.

    In light of the fact that the monetary policies of the Fed, as enabled by vested interest financial institutions, and furthered by hundreds of millions of dollars of lobbying with the clear goal of corrupting the system, has resulted in a massive loss of purchasing power of our US dollar, thus penalizing those who have worked and saved responsibly, and rewarding those who engage in overly risky behavior.

    In light of these facts, I believe it would be innapropriate for any US financial institutions to issue any large bonuses to their employees. The greed and arrogance that would be represented by such a handout will be met with the following action:

    If any employee of your company receives more than $30,000 bonus this year, I will be closing my accounts with your institution on January 10, 2010. I will transfer all assets to financial institutions that did not exceed the $30,000 bonus price cap.

    Please respond as to your intentions.

Comments are closed.