Cromnibus derivative give away.

The $1 trillion Cromnibus bill to fund the federal government for another year contains a juicy handout to banks.  Banks will be allowed to play the derivatives market using FDIC guaranteed money.  Taxpayer money. 
  Derivatives are an undesirable financial deal, basically gambling, and they take money that might be used to grow the economy and use it for pure gambling.  A derivative is not a stock or a bond.  It's bet between two parties on the price of something (commodities, stocks, foreign exchange, bonds, whatever) in the future.  "I bet the price of oil will go to $120 by March 2015".  " I bet it won't".  hands are shaken on the bet, and come March someone pays off.  The money does not go for starting up a company, building a factory, developing a new product, buying inventory, financing new aircraft, or anything that creates jobs and grows the economy.  As such, we ought to do everything we can to prevent gambling on derivatives. There are better things for banks to do with their money.
   Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) is a government guarantee of banks.  Roosevelt set it up in Great Depression 1.0 to convince depositors that they could leave their money in a bank and not worry about the bank failing and taking all their savings with it.  Prior to FDIC, anytime depositors got jittery, they ran to their bank and withdrew all their money.  When everyone did this, the bank withered and died, often within hours.  Now, 80 years later, FDIC is still with us.  FDIC means that no matter how dumbass the bank may be, Uncle will pay off the depositors.  Nobody has to worry about loosing money in a bank. 
   Which means the banks can take some unholy risks, figuring that Uncle will bail them out. 
   Part of Dodd-Frank required that banks no longer gamble in the derivative game using FDIC insured funds.  An excellent idea. 
   Apparently the banks threw bags of money at politicians and the politicians lifted the "no FDIC money for derivatives" ban.  They slipped it into the Cromnibus late at night. 
Money talks.  Politicians walk. 

I hear Sony got hacked...

Couldn't happen to a nicer victim.  Sony, as you might remember, is the company that tried copy protection for its music CDs by loading them with a root kit that infected customer's PC's.   A little shared pain is good for the company soul....

Cannon Mt Ski Weather

We got two, maybe three inches of new snow yesterday and last night.  It's below freezing (just barely) right now.  What with the seven inches we got on Wednesday, the mountain oughta be a great shape for tomorrow.

Torture Report runs interference for Cromnibus?

TV newsies have been totally consumed by the "Torture Report".  The report itself is 6000 pages long, and nobody, but nobody is gonna read thru that.  So partisan pundits have attacked from the left and the right, and the citizen is left with nothing factual, just heated opinions.  The newsies love this story and allow it to drive everything all off the news.
   Meanwhile, lame duck Congress is passing a $1 Trillion dollar appropriation bill, the "Continuing Resolution/Omnibus Spending Bill".  It will fund the entire federal government for a year.  That's a staggering sum of money.  Spread out over 1600 pages to make it difficult-to-impossible to figure out who gets how much.  Enough pork to choke a hog can be hidden in 1600 pages.  Nobody has read this monster flimflam either.  Nobody knows what's in it.  A few staff people know that their bit of pork got stuffed in, or got dropped on the floor, but none of 'em know the whole story.
   There must be some bad stuff in there if they think they need the Torture Report to hide it.
   Not the way to do business.

Cannon Mountain Ski Weather

Nothing happened yesterday until noon, when it started to snow, lightly.  Nothing worth mentioning until the sun went down.  By this morning I had 7 inches of new snow on my deck.  Since then, it's warmed up, it's right at the freezing mark, and we are getting a light rain.  The TV weathermen aren't sure what happens tonight, rain or snow? 

The Librarians

New TV show, advertised for AMC,  they actually showed it on TNT.  Sunday night premier, two hours long.  It's an Indiana Jones kind of action adventure show.  "Search for King Arthur's Celtic Crown" was the title of the first episode.  Which ought to give you an idea of what it's about. 
   It's lacking.  I feel asleep before the two hours were up.  Characters were weak, I didn't learn any of their names, always a bad sign.  The leading man is an anti team player, spends most of the time badmouthing his team mates.  His blond second in command has a mean right cross.  By rights she should have slugged him before the second commercial.  In the last reel, crown recovered, he lays them all off.  So much for the One for All, All for One" spirit. 
  I don't think I will bother to catch the next episode.  Hollywood is as lame as ever. 

480 Page Executive Summary??

The Democratic CIA Torture Report is getting released today.  The executive summary (introduction for Congress critters) is 480 pages long!!!  The whole report is 6000 pages.  Who in their right mind can wade thru that much gobbledegook?  I'll bet it kept about fifty bureaucrats busy writing it. 
  I cannot believe anything of substance survives being spread over 6000 pages.