Paul Volcker, former head of Federal Reserve bank, widely admired financial expert. He ran the Fed for many years or more with steady economic growth and no depressions.
Few newsies actually understand what the Volcker Rule is, but they are all in favor of it. Volcker wants to restrict bank trading in stocks. He wants to forbid banks from trading stocks "on their own account". If a bank customer orders the bank to "get me 400 shares of XYZ corp", that's trading on the customer's account, and that's OK. But for the bank to guess that XYZ stock is gonna take a dive, and dump it, or even worse, sell it short, that's verboten. There are some other tricky exceptions, but Volcker clearly desires to keep banks from playing the market.
Why you ask? First off, banks have enough money to move a stock's value. Buy up all the shares in sight, and the price of those shares goes up. Dump a bunch of shares on the market and the price tanks. Corporations hate this.
Second, investing in the stock market is riskier than doing home mortgages. A low speed, dumb guy bank can loose it's shirt in the market, and fail. Fail means the depositors loose their deposits. Everybody hates that.
Back after Great Depression I, Congress decided that banks playing the market had caused the depression. They passed the Glass Steagall act which forbid banks from buying or selling stocks at all. That was 1933. Glass Steagall was in effect right up until Willy Clinton was president. The banks hated Glass Steagall and they lobbied hard for its repeal and ten presidents after FDR turned a deaf ear. Finally we came to Clinton, he listened to the pleas of the banks and got a repeal of Glass Steagall thru Congress sometime in the 1990's.
Then we had Great Depression 2.0 in 2007. The Fed people didn't want to actually reverse themselves and call for re instituting Glass Steagall. But they did call for the Volcker Rule, which is Glass Steagall in more complicated language. Welfare for lawyers.
Me, I think we oughta bring back Glass Steagall. Any outfit, no matter what it calls itself, that has FDIC insured anything, may NOT play the stock market in any way shape or form. You wanna trade stocks, you go to a stock broker. Uncle Sam does NOT insure brokers or stock accounts, no way, no how.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Amnesty for Snowdon in return for?
TV news was talking about a deal for Snowdon, we give him amnesty if he gives us all the juicy secrets he still has, the ones he hasn't let out yet.
And so how do you do this. All the stuff Snowdon took fits on a thumbdrive, may be two thumbdrives, but still , real small. Fits in a coatpocket without a bulge. And, any computer geek like Snowdon understands about back up of essential data. He must have made a bunch of duplicates and hidden them the best he can. With friends, buried in his back yard, bank safe deposit boxes, with his folks, and somewhere in the cloud. We will never find them.
So, Snowdon gets amnesty back here, and he still has every thing he took from NSA.
Although I cannot imagine what stuff he has left being anything as juicy as the stuff he has released. But then maybe my imagination is weak.
And so how do you do this. All the stuff Snowdon took fits on a thumbdrive, may be two thumbdrives, but still , real small. Fits in a coatpocket without a bulge. And, any computer geek like Snowdon understands about back up of essential data. He must have made a bunch of duplicates and hidden them the best he can. With friends, buried in his back yard, bank safe deposit boxes, with his folks, and somewhere in the cloud. We will never find them.
So, Snowdon gets amnesty back here, and he still has every thing he took from NSA.
Although I cannot imagine what stuff he has left being anything as juicy as the stuff he has released. But then maybe my imagination is weak.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Ammunition shortage caused by consumer demand
Not government hoarding. Despite some staggeringly large ammunition buys from HHS. This from American Rifleman, the NRA magazine. The shortage is real, at least up here the shelves down at Cory's Sport Shop, are empty of all but the most common calibers.
Although HHS has placed some massive buys, these are multi year contracts, and according to American Rifleman, the quantities are about what the agency has bought in past years. The real increase is in the number of American gun owners. Particularly striking is the increase in woman gun owners. The increase in demand is real, and you can see it in the revenues from the federal ammunition tax. That's gone up and up and is showing no sign of slowing down. The number of federal instant background checks has also grown significantly, supporting the ammunition tax data.
Although HHS has placed some massive buys, these are multi year contracts, and according to American Rifleman, the quantities are about what the agency has bought in past years. The real increase is in the number of American gun owners. Particularly striking is the increase in woman gun owners. The increase in demand is real, and you can see it in the revenues from the federal ammunition tax. That's gone up and up and is showing no sign of slowing down. The number of federal instant background checks has also grown significantly, supporting the ammunition tax data.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Thanks goodness for gridlock
According to Fox TV News, this year Congress only passed 51 bills, as opposed to last year when they passed 350 odd.
This is a good thing. Most bills are bad for the country. We don't need another farm bill passing money to corporate farms. We don't need another highway bill to keep road contractors fully employed. We don't need Obamacare. We don't need Dodd Frank or Sarbanes Oxley. We don't need more special favors for special interests. We don't need to extend unemployment benefits from two years to three.
Since the country and the Congress is evenly divided, neither party can push its pet programs thru.
Which is what democracy is all about.
Until one party or the other can muster the votes to control both House and Senate, things will stay as they are. And that's the way it should be.
This is a good thing. Most bills are bad for the country. We don't need another farm bill passing money to corporate farms. We don't need another highway bill to keep road contractors fully employed. We don't need Obamacare. We don't need Dodd Frank or Sarbanes Oxley. We don't need more special favors for special interests. We don't need to extend unemployment benefits from two years to three.
Since the country and the Congress is evenly divided, neither party can push its pet programs thru.
Which is what democracy is all about.
Until one party or the other can muster the votes to control both House and Senate, things will stay as they are. And that's the way it should be.
Cannon gets some decent snow.
We have 6-8 inches down, and it's still falling. Plus we have good low temps forcast for next week so the snowblowing can continue. They ought to have all the trails open by tomorrow. Christmas week ought to be good skiing. We need it up here.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Security Fail
We now have two insecure databases, in which evrybody has an entry. And both of them are wide open to hackers, crackers, and worms like Stuxnet. All thanks to Obamacare for putting our lives on line for anyone to read.
Healthcare.gov is the first problem area. Its security problems have been getting some attention from the newsies. As well it should. It's running on Windows,( everything runs on Windows) and anytime you connect Windows to the public internet, the knowledgeable hacker knows about 50 secret ways to take the Windows machine over completely, load and execute his own code, and force the victim Windows machine to do anything he likes. Such as send all its data back over the internet to the hacker. The only defense is to use the strongest possible encryption and even that isn't fool proof.
The second problem area is "digital medical records". Obamacare is forcing all doctors to put all their patient's medical records on line. Used to be, your medical records were kept in a file folder in a cabinet in the doctor's office. Short of burglary, they were secure. And it would take a very savvy burglar to find them, and a small truck to haul them all away.
Obamacare demands all the medical records be digitized and stored on line for everyone in the hospital to see. This is supposed to be a cost cutting measure. But, on line means hackers can get to it, and they don't need that small truck to haul them away.
Less than scrupulous employers will take a peek at the medical records of any prospective new hire. Should that new hire have an preexisting condition, or treatment for drugs, alcohol, or mental health problems, he can kiss that job goodbye. In practice, this guy will be unemployable. Privacy means the ability to keep bad things in your past secret, to start over, and press on. Now that we have Obamacare and on line medical records, forget about privacy.
Healthcare.gov is the first problem area. Its security problems have been getting some attention from the newsies. As well it should. It's running on Windows,( everything runs on Windows) and anytime you connect Windows to the public internet, the knowledgeable hacker knows about 50 secret ways to take the Windows machine over completely, load and execute his own code, and force the victim Windows machine to do anything he likes. Such as send all its data back over the internet to the hacker. The only defense is to use the strongest possible encryption and even that isn't fool proof.
The second problem area is "digital medical records". Obamacare is forcing all doctors to put all their patient's medical records on line. Used to be, your medical records were kept in a file folder in a cabinet in the doctor's office. Short of burglary, they were secure. And it would take a very savvy burglar to find them, and a small truck to haul them all away.
Obamacare demands all the medical records be digitized and stored on line for everyone in the hospital to see. This is supposed to be a cost cutting measure. But, on line means hackers can get to it, and they don't need that small truck to haul them away.
Less than scrupulous employers will take a peek at the medical records of any prospective new hire. Should that new hire have an preexisting condition, or treatment for drugs, alcohol, or mental health problems, he can kiss that job goodbye. In practice, this guy will be unemployable. Privacy means the ability to keep bad things in your past secret, to start over, and press on. Now that we have Obamacare and on line medical records, forget about privacy.
Minimum wage, a bad idea
Lefties and unions are pushing for $15 minimum wage for flipping burgers at McD's. Right now McD's pays $7 or $8. They think it will raise the living standards of McD's workers. I think it will get them all laid off.
As a society we have a LOT of young, untrained, not very productive people who need a job. Since they aren't very productive, employers cannot afford to pay them much. Double the pay and the employers will say, " I have to pay these guys more than they bring in, I'd be ahead if I laid them off . I can automate, outsource, or reduce service to my customers and make more money." Net result, no jobs for the workers just entering the job market.
There is no requirement for entry level jobs to pay enough to raise a family on. Entry level workers are un married, probably living at home, still in school. After they have been filling an entry level job for a bit, they can get promoted, find a better job, move to boom areas, or something. Flipping burgers is fine for high school students, but you cannot plan on flipping burgers all your life. You gotta make something of yourself.
So, bottom line, boosting minimum wage cuts off entry level jobs, throws people out of work.
That first job is important to anyone's career. The first job will get you a recommendation when you apply for the next job. As a hiring manager I always checked a guy's references. If his last boss said good things about him, he was hired. Very important to have a last boss, and for him to think well of you. Which means we need entry level jobs, to give the new job seekers some experience and some references. Cut off the entry level jobs by hiking the minimum wage and it gets harder and meaner for the vast majority.
As a society we have a LOT of young, untrained, not very productive people who need a job. Since they aren't very productive, employers cannot afford to pay them much. Double the pay and the employers will say, " I have to pay these guys more than they bring in, I'd be ahead if I laid them off . I can automate, outsource, or reduce service to my customers and make more money." Net result, no jobs for the workers just entering the job market.
There is no requirement for entry level jobs to pay enough to raise a family on. Entry level workers are un married, probably living at home, still in school. After they have been filling an entry level job for a bit, they can get promoted, find a better job, move to boom areas, or something. Flipping burgers is fine for high school students, but you cannot plan on flipping burgers all your life. You gotta make something of yourself.
So, bottom line, boosting minimum wage cuts off entry level jobs, throws people out of work.
That first job is important to anyone's career. The first job will get you a recommendation when you apply for the next job. As a hiring manager I always checked a guy's references. If his last boss said good things about him, he was hired. Very important to have a last boss, and for him to think well of you. Which means we need entry level jobs, to give the new job seekers some experience and some references. Cut off the entry level jobs by hiking the minimum wage and it gets harder and meaner for the vast majority.
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