By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Readers, this Water Cooler may be a little bit light, as I recover from a rare social engagement. –lambert
ECB HQ Opening and Blockupy Demonstration
Draghi’s speech [ECB]. ““A currency is far more than just a medium of exchange … A currency is also part of the identity of people. It reflects what they have in common, now and in the future.” Discuss.
Blockupy planning post [Blockupy].
Blockupy: anti-ECB protest in Frankfurt – in pictures [Guardian].
“The demonstration was organized by activist group Blockupy to coincide with the opening of the ECB’s new $1.3 billion headquarters in Frankfurt” [CNN].
“Blockupy is a left-wing alliance of dozens of activist groups from across Europe. Its members include one of the largest German labor unions, Ver.di, and Syriza, the Greek political party that is now leading the government in Athens” [New York Times].
“Occupy Frankfurt and allied anti-capitalist groups called for a blockade of Frankfurt’s banking district over Ascension weekend in April 2012. Several tens of thousands of people turned up for the demonstration. The demonstration’s organizers kept working together afterward, and recruited additional member organizations. The Blockupy alliance emerged from that” [Deutsche Welle].
Live blog [The Local]. Some cars set on fire, with the usual tight focus making the flames appear as large as possible. All reports lack agency, as in “protest turns violent.” Of course, protest doesn’t “turn” violent; people do that, often police. Of course, there’s always an asshole.
2016
Al Gore: “[W]e need to put a price on denial in politics” [Bloomberg].
Apparently, Clinton didn’t sign a “separation statement” when leaving State. Then again, says State, neither did Powell or Rice [Reuters]. Whenever I hear a precise-sounding earworm like “separation statement,” especially when I’ve never heard it before and only hear it first in the context of a Beltway scandal, my Spidey sense goes on alert.
Establishment
Jebbie made multiple calls on behalf of a health-care entrepreneur named Miguel Recarey Jr to senior administration officials — and his advocacy made a difference in getting Recarey the Medicare waivers he wanted [WaPo]. Fast forward two years: “Facing charges of bribery and bilking Medicare, Recarey fled the country to avoid prosecution.” Alrighty then.
Principled Insurgents
Rand Paul at SXSW [New York Times].
Walker to cut University of Wisconsin, fund pro basketball arena [Think Progress]. Well, how can the squillionaires do their deals without luxury skyboxes? Let’s be reasonable, here.
Walker hired an Iowa staffer, then dumped her at the behest of the Iowa Republican establishment. Jonah Goldberg reacts: “I get that Walker needs to win Iowa and that staffers aren’t more important than the candidate. But principles are. If Walker didn’t want a critic of the Iowa caucuses on his payroll he shouldn’t have hired one. But he did. And throwing her under the bus for this, suggests not only that he’s got some problems getting ready for prime time, it also suggests he can get rolled by the Iowa GOP establishment. What happens when he gets to Washington?” [National Review].
Clown Car
Donald Trump is reportedly gearing up to launch a presidential exploratory committee [WaPo].
“Ninety-five percent of self-identified Republican primary voters are white… The GOP primary electorate is even less diverse than the country was in 1916, when 91% of the voting-age population was white” [Wall Street Journal].
Democratic staff bail on Rep. Brad Ashford because he won’t spend enough time fundraising [Roll Call]. Understandable, I suppose, but surely part of the problem? Shockingly, Ashford “doesn’t seem concerned about how the DCCC views his race.” Because DCCC has shown such good judgment in the past…
“Oregon’s new law removes the registration obstacle from the voter entirely. Instead, it’s the government’s responsibility to make sure every eligible voter is registered” [Vox].
The Hill
Schumer: “We should not cut Social Security. I don’t think we should privatize Social Security, I don’t think we should raise the age of Social Security” [Talking Points Memo]. No, you should raise Social Security benefits, and you should lower the age. Sheesh, Democrats.
Herd on the Street
The Twitter: Fed removes “patient” at FOMC.
“Boeing is the biggest winner of state and local tax incentives, receiving more than $13 billion of them” [McClatchy].
“The Guardian has teamed up with CNN International, the Financial Times and Thomson Reuters to create the Pangaea Alliance, a digital advertising offering” [Adage].
Germans ban Uber and French raid their offices [Wall Street Journal]. Hard to work up a lot of sympathy for Uber, since their business model is to enter markets by breaking the law, which they then try to have modified retroactively in their favor. My guess is that 90% of the Uber’s buzz in the press is generated by techies and journos who want to think they’re dealing with a “sharing economy” “professional” like themselves, instead of some working class stiff driving a cab.
Stats Watch
MBA Mortgage Applications, week of March 13, 2015: “Despite low mortgage rates, demand for mortgage purchase applications continues to be weak, down 2.0 percent” [Bloomberg].
Emanueldämmerung
Garcia platform: “Why all the new charters? Because they are the new coin of political patronage” [Chuy Garcia]. Ding!
“Emanuel took a page from what then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg did to New York, and now Manhattan is an island of the wealthy and the people who do their dishes” [New City]. Invective all in good fun, but with hopes for Garcia.
“Turnout in the wealthier, more-Republican wards was relatively low in the first round of the primary, but those voters are more likely to rally to Emanuel’s side” [National Journal].
Citadel hedgie and squillionaire Ken Griffin supports Rahm Emanuel and Scott Walker [HuffPo]. If that seems like a contradiction to you, pay closer attention.
Former Goldman Sachs investor Muneer Satter supports Rahm Emanuel and Jeb Bush [Bloomberg].
“If Rahm loses, it will shake up Democratic politics to its core, a shake-up that is long overdue” [Down with Tyranny].
Health Care
Premera Blue Cross reveals cyberattack that affected 11 million customers [Fortune (CB)]. Premara’s response just slays me:
Premera plans to offer two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to all affected customers. “As much as possible, we want to make this event our burden, not yours, by making services available to protect you and your information moving forward,” CEO Jeff Roe said in a statement.
“As much as possible.” Really, Jeff? I’ve still got to spend my time managing the service. So how come you pay me for those hours, since it was your carelessness (assuming that instead of corruption[1]) that wrecked my credit and exposed my ID?
[1] Do I believe that CEOs would give hackers the information to break into corporate systems in exchange for a cut of the take? Sure. Why wouldn’t they? After all, hacking risks are “in the price” by this point, so their options aren’t affected.
Imperial Collapse Watch
Questions Congress should ask the administration on new AUMF: “1. What, exactly, is our strategic military objective?” [Just Security]. Wait. We don’t know? It’s not obvious?
The Moustache of Understanding: “Why are we, for the third time since 9/11, fighting a war on behalf of Iran?” [Thomas Friedman, New York Times]. When you’ve lost Thomas Friedman….
Maps
“Punny Maps of The Foodnited States of America” [Brilliant Maps]. Tunasee.
The Great Attractor [Daily Galaxy].
“Watch Four Years of Oil Drilling Collapse in Seconds” [Bloomberg].
To spot income inequality from space, count the trees [Bill Moyers].
Class Warfare
Peasant sovereignty? “Small farmers and peasants in nine European countries outproduce large farmers” [Independent Science News (SV)].
News of the Wired
- “To be or not to be” is not a soliloquoy [Shakespeare Magazine]. A hideous mobile-friendly/laptop-hateful Flash (!) implementation. Nevertheless, the content is interesting.
- “How to Make Millions by Marketing Yourself as a ‘Douche Bag’” [Bloomberg]. Tell me it’s not a great country.
- Wild pine marten spotted in UK’s West Country after fifty years [Western Morning News].
- “Energy companies and financial firms have received the lion’s share of federal assistance to corporations since 2000. … Bank of America was the largest single recipient of loan guarantees and bailout assistance, at nearly $3.5 trillion [McClatchy].
Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And here’s today’s plant, the third of “I Wish It Were Spring!” week (bob):
Bob: “Probably too early, I’ll jinx us with this one.” Nah. Let’s be optimistic!
Readers sent in some very nice “I Wish It Were Spring!” photos, but I could always use some more. Glad to put this winter behind!
If you enjoy Water Cooler, please consider tipping and click the hat. It’s the heating season!
Talk amongst yourselves!
UPDATE Bonus plant:
— Joseph Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) March 18, 2015
60 comments
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re: Donald Trump to launch a presidential exploratory committee
Krikey The Klown Kar is gettin’ Kramped
NBC to Trump: “You’re Fired.” (or at least that’s how I assume the conversation went down)
PS. the Trump link to WaPo is foobared.
Wait what? The ECB spend $1.3 billion on an HQ office building. And from those very offices they will Preach Austerity to the masses?
I think Blockupy got it right. Burn that F**ker to the ground. hahaha.
Maybe they’ll let Greece move in?
I wonder if the cafeteria is free.
But there must be a Money Printers’ Union in Europe. A building that big must house a lot ’em – so their work load can’t be that high.
Sloppy. No evidence the people setting the cars on fire are Blockupy. If black bloc runs true to form, it’s them (and/or the cops who infiltrate them).
Adding…. I didn’t print the photos of smoke over Frankfurt because I’ve seen photos of Bangkok burning in 2010 after an occupation that lasted for months, in which many people were killed, and when fortifications made of tires and a central mall were set on fire, and a photo of Frankfurt would suggest some form of comparability, but there isn’t any.
Even if there was police infiltration of Black Bloc, it’s irrelevant. The police are not inciting the Bloc members to riot. Rioting is the POINT! Really, let’s be honest here- your true purpose in making this claim is to spread the idea that Black Bloc participants are idiots or dupes. As if they fell out of bed in the morning, landed in a pile of ninja costumes, wandered aimlessly to where there coincidentally happened to be a protest, and then saw an agent provocateur smash a window and said to themselves, “Hey, that looks like a great idea!”. No. This is intentional, and it works, and what really terrifies you is that it’s popular.
The Goldman Sachs Tower cost more.
I am actually thrilled that 17 000 were on the streets, many middle aged. Frankfurt has not seen such a large crowd of protesters in a long while.
Yes, that’s good. 17,000 comes from where?
FAZ, Spiegel, etc. Even Spiegel editor Augstein who wrote a positive editorial today.
LOL @ the piece on Walker. If Republicans wanted principles, they should have booted Walker (along with many, many others) out of the party long since.
Principles interfere with what *must be done*. Neither party wants any part of that.
Didn’t Jonah Goldberg get the same message that Scott Walker did? You know, the one from very rich GOPers in Iowa, as well as from Unca Sugar Daddy Kochs? Fire the b****!
Walker knows which side of bread to butter. I guess wingnut welfare klown, Lucienne’s lil brat, doesn’t have do that or he’s paid to pretend that he, at least, can write tough.
Feh. KKKlown Kar Kabuki show.
Haven’t seen any Wake Robins here yet. Can’t be far off though.
You might say Bank of America is responsible for 20% of our deficit.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-did-1800-sea-lion-pups-wash-ashore-in-california/
More on the stranded California sea lions. 1800 so far and counting.
Clown Car
I think if the Rs could just get over this Birther thing, change the law now that they’ve got a majority, and run Arnold, they’d have the best guy out of the whole flock. (the bar be very low) At least Arnold is too cool to be mistaken for a Bozo.
Ever since the 2008 election, pitting a Panamanian against a Kenyan, the birth thing has been irrelevant.
Ted Cruz don’t seem bothered about being born in Canada, so I don’t know why Arnold would have any worries.
We are the world, comrade!
You must not be from Caleeeefornia, or you’d very much mistake Ahhhhnold for Bozo. After his shenanigans with his housekeeper resulting in a son that Ahhhhnold didn’t acknowledge for 10 years while playing lovey-dovey-hubby to Maria… well us Californicators will only put up with so much obfuscating. Ahhhnold jumped the shark on that one.
and anyway, the R-Team can’t wash off the Birther bs that quickly, and they know it. They shot themselves in the foot with that one. Too bad, too sad, get used to it.
PS of course, if you are or look white and come from somewhere in the Americas, I guess all is forgiven or ignored. Hypocrites.
There’s also that pesky Constitution (Article II, Section 1) to deal with, not that anyone pays much attention to it anymore.
He had an affair. Meanwhile Jerry Brown fracks up the whole state.
Arnold probably would be near the best of a bad lot.
Until a horse gets elected to the Senate, the Empire has not truly arrived.
John Kerry?
He’s only half a horse….the rear half.
I was from Caleeeefornia, but I exchanged my house for early retirement.
So Ahhhhnold messed up one time. Maria canned him and probably got half his $20M net worth. So lets call it even. But I still maintain Ahhhhnold is cooler than all the Rs & Ds we have to choose from in our currently miserable Klown Kollection.
I just realized this is a tremendous insult to the real clown community. Hope they have a sense of humor and don’t take it personal. :0 )
CB,
Maria canned him and probably got half his $20M net worth.
FWIW, I think you missed a significant digit. Why ever would he maintain CA residency and agree to a divorce w/ a 50% haircut?
Dunno. CA is rough that way. Maybe Maria went for a cheap pre-nup? I don’t know.
A natural slate would be:
Arnie for Prez.
Jesse Ventura for Veep.
Ted Nugent for Secretary of the Interior.
The Ghost of Alexander Hamilton for Treasurer. (Combine this with Fed Chair?)
Jebbie for head of INS.
Anyone for Secretary of Defense since this is a purely ceremonial post.
Secretary of State? That’s a hard one. We’ll have to get back to you on that.
Arnie and Jesse may surprise us and turn out way better than we might think. Don’t think they would want Ted on the team. Be interested to hear what they think of Alex, lately. I think either of ’em can easily beat the crap out of Jamie or Lord B. They don’t strike me as the Jebbie type either. There is an INS? A deaf person for Sec Def and mute person for Sec State would be my suggestion.
Presumably ‘separation statement’ derives from ‘signing statement,’ in which the president stipulates which parts of the law he disagrees with and won’t enforce.
If you don’t sign a separation statement, then you reserve the right to ignore the law in its entirety. Ha ha ha ha … so sue me.
Technically, the separation statement is the contract you sign promising to never point on the doll where the company hurt you, usually in exchange for far less severance than you deserve.
I am troubled by the Premera Blue Cross cyberattack and the many other thefts of “identity” and personal information that seem to be accelerating in scope and frequency.
Premera’s offer of “two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to all …” seems quite inadequate. Credit monitoring focuses on credit card frauds. I don’t know what kind of “identity” theft protection services are on offer but as I recall, the identity theft protection the US government offered in their remedy package, after they were hacked and lost my “identity,” was attached to the three credit approval bureaus — again focused on possible credit card fraud. What about bank accounts, brokerage accounts, IRAs, mutual funds? How much more information does a thief need to tap those? Will they be protected by the theft protection services?
Besides, two years protection seems remarkably chinsy. Are we to believe thieves are unable to remember after two years or somehow unable to just wait and rob us after a couple of years? I would expect the thieves without patience would just sell the information to a network of others who did have patience and organizations to make use of the stolen “identities”.
As long as our “identity” is so modestly defined in terms of a few magic numbers and relatively easily collected or stolen pieces of information we are all exposed — for the convenience of those offering credit and those wanting to take our money into an account … and those who would tap into our credit and accounts.
Have you considered that maybe this is the NSA gathering data for “cross-linking”? You wouldn’t want their paranoid dossier on you to be incomplete or inaccurate, would you?
That’s not the NSA’s usual style. Why break into the house when the landlord will let you walk through and take pictures of anything you like for “insurance purposes”?
At this point, using SSN for identity is Total Foobar. That horse galloped out of the barn back in the 1960s. Every business used SSN to id a customer. It’s all sitting in millions of paper filing cabinets on 100s of millions of application forms. And probably being sold as office furniture when the business folds.
My hair-cutter got ID thefted (SSN, address, birthdate). The Bad Guy filed her tax return this year. IRS flagged the return because it was missing some income sources. I have no idea how the thief was going to collect and cash the refund. She won’t get her refund until September — because gubmint is so efficient.
Nasdaq 5000, comrades. It’s less than 20 points away.
Still time to get in on the ground floor!
Fed removes “patient” at FOMC.
DOW up +227 points.
Hey, Ms Yellen, I think that Mister Market just flipped you off. ;-)
Kramer says Buy, Buy, Buy. (I assume)
This Time Is Different!!!
A reaction to Netanyahoo getting reelected. The markets like stability.
What a wonderful joke! Netenyahoo and stability! (Let us seriously hope that Bibi is not a secret believer in the “mashiach.”)
But they wimped out in the statement
” Fed lowered its estimate for where the federal funds rate will be by the end of 2015 to 0.625 percent, versus a December forecast of 1.125 percent. In a new set of quarterly projections, policy makers cut forecasts for economic growth and inflation.”
More time for playing with bubbles. Economy down -> stock market up? See? ‘Tis hard to tell which way is up. I still remember olden gays when they told us the stock market forecasts the economy. That has really messed me up. hahaha. wahhhh.
Now my keyboard is messing with me. “olden days”.. hahaha It wants new batteries, I think.
Since Netanyahu won big then presumably Rahm is next. Some days it seems like there’s no hope.
Did Sheldon Adelson buy some voting machine hackers for Rahmbo like he did for Netanyahu? If yes, then Rahm’s in like Flynn… which is why he refused to meet with his AA constituents. Why bother when it’s in the can?
Evidence, please.
Wow: The Moustache of Understanding: “Why are we, for the third time since 9/11, fighting a war on behalf of Iran?”
Is he truly that stupid? And the irrationality about Iran in the United States knows no limits. I realize that the relations between Iran and the U.S. have been problematicalicious, but now the entire world is being run out of a seminar room in the Holy City of Qom?
Thanks for enlightening me. I didn’t know that! (yes = /s).
Chutzpah.
I think I’m eligible for about 5 of those credit monitoring things thanks to the mewling crowd of companies who (1) amass giant hoards of confidential health/banking/etc. data and (2) treat it like someone’s used kleenex. I have to pay twice: First, they hand my data to actual thieves and increase the likelihood I’ll have to spend considerable personal time dealing with the repercussions, for which I am never compensated. Second, they want to steal my personal time by making me take action to sign up with whatever credit monitoring operator gave them the cheapest bid. I again receive no actual compensation, just the wasted time and dubious “service” of their credit monitor crony. And if you know anything about introductory offers, the first X months are free, and after that they start sending you a bill, and two years later you’re lucky if you remember the username you signed up under, and who knows how much of a hassle it will be to cancel. Because it’s just another profit center.
Best advice. This is how things should be by default, without the $10 fee, but you have to use certified snail mail to get the point across. Not just for NH, but where I found it quickly.
http://doj.nh.gov/consumer/identity-theft/credit-freeze-faq.htm#place
How do I place a security freeze?
To place a freeze, you must write to each of the three credit bureaus. Write by certified mail to the addresses below:
Equifax Security Freeze
PO Box 105788
Atlanta, GA 30348
Experian Security Freeze
PO Box 9554
Allen, TX 75013
TransUnion Security Freeze
PO Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
And include the following information:
Your full name, including first, last, and middle names and any suffix.
Any previously used the following name(s).
Your current full addresses, including street address, any apartment number, city, state, and zip code.
Your most recent full addresses, including street address, any apartment number, city, state, and zip code.
Your social security number.
Your date of birth.
If you have been the victim of identity theft, provide a copy of a police report filed with your local police agency.
If you have not been the victim of identity theft, enclose payment of $10.00 for placing the freeze.
back to topCan I open new credit accounts if my files are frozen?
Yes. If you want to open a new credit account or get a new loan, you can lift the freeze on your credit file. You can lift it for a period of time. Or you can lift it for a specific creditor. After you send your letter asking for the freeze, each of the credit bureaus will send you a Personal Identification Number (PIN) within 10 business days of receiving the request. You will also get instructions on how to lift the freeze. You can lift the freeze by phone, using your PIN. The credit bureaus must lift your freeze within three days. The fee for lifting the freeze temporarily is $10.
Normally I would just let it pass, but since the article “How to Make Millions by Marketing Yourself as a ‘Douche Bag’” is from Bloomberg, could someone help me with the math?
I just can’t seem to figure out how turning $500k into $875k represents an increase of 175%. Is there some sort of different math used by these Wall Streeters?
don’t know, but i hear getting in on the ground floor of the douche bag industry is a no-brainer
they will move like buggy whips!
If they give you your $500k back that’s a 100% gain right there. The rest is gravy. Or something.
Correct.
100% of 500 is 500. +75%=375. Total 875.
Also 1.75 times 500 equals 875.
Egbert Sousé: …If five gets ya ten, ten’ll get ya twenty. A beautiful home in the country, upstairs and down. Beer flowing through the estate over your grandmother’s paisley shawl.
Og Oggilby: Beer?
Egbert Sousé: Beer! Fishing in the stream that runs under the aboreal dell. A man comes up from the bar, dumps $3,500 in your lap for every nickel invested. Says to you, “Sign here on the dotted line.” And then disappears in the waving fields of alfalfa
~WCF, The Bank Dick
In this week Sun (our hearts) is moving back over the north on Friday. Summer-halve-year beginning.
The messenger (Mercury) is moving into the depths.
http://astromundanediary.blogspot.de/2015/03/3_16.html
Schumer: “We should not cut Social Security. I don’t think we should privatize Social Security, I don’t think we should raise the age of Social Security”*
* This statement expires the day after the election in 2016when Hillary will have “no alternatibe” but to gut Social Security in order to save it.
@shinola: “I just can’t seem to figure out how turning $500k into $875k represents an increase of 175%. Is there some sort of different math used by these Wall Streeters?”
Indeed there is: Since the default assumption by the WSers is that they end up with all the money, you simply ending up with the amount you invested represents a 100% return, as ‘we returned 100% of your investment.’
https://theamericanscholar.org/this-is-russia/#.VQotzY0tGpp
“Live blog [The Local]. Some cars set on fire, with the usual tight focus making the flames appear as large as possible. All reports lack agency, as in “protest turns violent.” Of course, protest doesn’t “turn” violent; people do that, often police. Of course, there’s always an asshole.”
Enough already! Do you think anyone would be hearing about these protests if it wasn’t for the Black Bloc? The lesson from Ferguson is that riots work.
“Live blog [The Local]. Some cars set on fire, with the usual tight focus making the flames appear as large as possible. All reports lack agency, as in “protest turns violent.” Of course, protest doesn’t “turn” violent; people do that, often police. Of course, there’s always an asshole.”
Enough already! Nobody would be hearing about the protests at all if it wasn’t for the Black Bloc. The lesson from Ferguson is that riots work.
Sorry about the double-post
Love the little “gems” peppered throughout the National Journal article on Rahmbama. Samples :
Yeah right, a diverse mix of rich people – Repubs and Dems [almost all white?]