Economic Progress In YOUR Zip Code Pass It On October 15, 2010March 19, 2017 But first . . . IT GETS BETTER If every 12-year-old in the country – and every parent – took a few minutes to watch this Fort Worth City Councilman, there would be more happiness in America and, at the extreme, fewer teen suicides. The irony of course is that the worst bullies are those who are gay themselves (whether they yet have become fully aware of it or not), and who resort to verbal or physical gay-bashing to “prove” this could not possibly be the case. (Hey, just look at Senator “wide stance” Larry Craig’s 100% anti-gay voting record.) I’ve always thought that if that irony could become common knowledge – the irony that if you’re disparaging one of your classmates that way it probably means you’re gay – the public disparagement would cease. What would be the point in trying to hide your own homosexual feelings by bashing others if that very bashing would make you suspect? I was never bullied in high school for being gay – I was one of the guys with the varsity jackets. (A terrible soccer player, albeit with heart; such a mediocre swimmer that Coach Kramp – true name! – suggested I go out for wrestling instead; a wrestler who made the varsity only because the guy ahead of me had his neck broken early in the season.) But even without being bullied it was tough knowing – and knowing I would always have to keep secret – that I was unacceptable. Things have gotten so much better since then, thanks to innumerable wonderful people like you, who get it. But as the Councilman’s clip shows, we still have a long way to go. Watch it? And pass it on? And now . . . PROGRESS If yesterday’s list was a little clunky (though substantive), click here for elegant. It’s a just-launched site that shows the progress we’ve made – nationwide, or by state, or even down to your own zip code. And you can drill down to see, for example, all the tax breaks given to small business. Don’t miss this. And pass it on? Finally . . . APPEAL The Administration is well on its way to repealing Don’t Ask / Don’t Tell. Repeal passed the House and would have passed the Senate had not all 41 Republican Senators voted to prevent it from coming to the floor. My guess is that the Senate will pass it in December before adjourning for the year. In the meantime, a California Federal District Court judge ruled the law unconstitutional – and said the ruling, which would normally apply only within that district, applied worldwide. The Justice Department yesterday asked for a stay of the ruling – and a lot of people are wondering why. If the Obama Administration wishes to get rid of the policy, why appeal this verdict? And, for that matter, why appeal the pro-LGBT marriage rulings in Massachusetts and California? You’ll find one explanation here. “The short version,” says the author (“no apologist for Obama”), “is that the US legal system often works in ways that are deeply counter-intuitive. We should not only expect that these cases will be appealed, we should desire that they are. . . . The sky is not falling. We are not doomed. Do not panic about these (or similar) appeals. That’s how the US legal system works. It’s long and slow sometimes, but taking shortcuts isn’t how to win the day.” If the full analysis resonates with you, pass it on, too.
Ooma, DEPO . . . Fired UP! October 14, 2010March 19, 2017 VERIZON Marian Calabro: “We came home from vacation in June to find no Verizon landline service. No telling how long it was out, but it took them four days to repair. Fortunately we also have a cable line. Since then, three other friends in north Jersey have had similar experiences. Until this year I never heard of Verizon crashes unless there were huge storms. They’ve become just plain lax. The fellow who says to complain to the BPU is correct, because they’re a utility—or should be.” Ted Graham: “If you have broadband, there are several options for switching to Internet calling and keeping your current home phone number. I have an Ooma, which cost $200 and offers no monthly fees, free long distance and cheap international calling. We kept our home number and plugged in our existing wireless handsets, it works great. Saves $25/month, plus lots of crazy fees and taxes. I’m not sure I’d do it for your only phone, but most people will have at least one cell phone around.” ☞ I haven’t used it myself, but I’m glad to hear you’re pleased, because I suggest Ooma in the new edition of my book. DEPO Suggested at $4.50 a year ago and a few weeks later at $3.02 – and a few months later still at $2.47 – our patience (obstinacy?) has begun to pay off, with the stock closing at $4.81 last night. Guru thinks it will be over $6 in a year. I wouldn’t rush to buy it here and have sold some shares in my tax-deferred account – but am happy holding the rest. FIRED UP! If you haven’t seen this on Daily Kos or The People’s View, check it out – and pass it on. It’s not particularly elegant, but it shows that an awful lot has been accomplished, even in the face of unprecedented opposition. That the Republicans would have filibustered their own Bipartisan Deficit Reduction Commission speaks volumes, I think, to the all-but-treasonous way the Republicans in the Senate have sought to throw wrenches in the gears of progress. You can argue that their cheers when Chicago lost its Olympic bid was just robust partisanship. You can argue that their prayers the health care bill would fail was based on policy differences – though the “Waterloo” talk suggests some just wanted to see the President fail. Likewise, their votes against extending unemployment insurance, against the stimulus, against the small business package, against the credit card bill and the financial reform bill and the hate crimes bill and repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell – all that. But how do you argue that scuttling their own proposed bipartisan deficit reduction commission was anything other than trying to make sure the President fails, whatever the cost to the country? Anyway, here it is: Respectfully, Mr. President: Thank You! by ThisIsMyTime Wed Oct 13, 2010 at 08:56:57 AM PDT As the battle for control of Congress has tightened and the so called enthusiasm gap is evaporating, we must continue speaking to voter about what Democrats in Congress have accomplished. If you are a democrat and you have an enthusiasm gap, I am hoping that this could change your lack of enthusiasm. The facts are in the last 23 months, the following are things that I think are worth keeping scores about what President Obama and the Democratic congress have accomplished that get over looked without an ounce of credit by some who are always disappointed about something. I think it is important to not only speak to voters about the fact we are moving forward together but remind activists to see what they have been resisting. I don’t know about you but I am ready to go and these are the reasons why I have more Enthusiasm than ever: Health Care Reform: Coverage can’t be denied to children with pre-existing conditions. Adults up to age 26 can stay on their parents’ health plans. Free preventive care. Rescinding coverage is now illegal. Eliminating lifetime limits on insurance coverage. Restricting annual limits on insurance coverage. More options to appeal coverage decisions. $5 billion in immediate federal support to affordable Coverage for the Uninsured with Pre-existing Conditions. $10 billion investment in Community Health Centers. Create immediate access to re-insurance for employer health plans providing coverage for early retirees. Made an $80 billion deal with the pharmaceutical industry to contribute to cut prescription drug costs for the nation’s seniors reduce the size of the “donut hole” in the Medicare (Part D) Drug Benefit. Economy: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has worked. The Economy Has Been Growing – take a look at the graph of GDP growth between 2007 thru 2010. US auto industry rescue plan — Detroit making profits again and at least 1 million jobs saved. Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 that extended Unemployment benefits up to 20 weeks and more. Provided $14.7 billion in small business loans increasing minority access to capital. The $26 billion aid to states package preventing large-scale layoffs of teachers and public employees. Banking and Financial Reform: Signed a sweeping bank-reform bill (the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act) into law. Managed the $700 Billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that Banks have repaid 75% of TARP funds, bringing the cost down to $89B as of June 2010. Cut Salaries For 65 Bailout Executives. Closed offshore tax safe havens, tax credit loopholes on companies that use the tax laws to ship American Jobs oversees. HR 4213. Signed into law the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act to fight fraud in the use of TARP and recovery funds, and to increase accountability for corporate and mortgage frauds. Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act. Education: Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 that increased the amount of federal Pell Grant awards and enabled the stripping of banks privileges as intermediaries for student loan servicing. Created the Race to the Top Fund, a $4.35 billion program to reward States that submit the best proposals for change. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, funded over$100 Billion for reforms to strengthen Elementary and Secondary education, early learning programs, college affordability and improve access to higher education, and to close the achievement gap. Jobs: The $787 billion economic stimulus package has created or saved nearly 2 million jobs slowing the bleeding. Jobs for Main Street Act (2010)injected $27.5 Billion for Highways, $8.4 Billion for Transit into the country’s transportation system to create jobs and spur economic activity. A $33 Billion Jobs Package that will allow Small businesses to get $5,000 tax credit for new hires. A $26 billion State Aid Package Jobs Bill saving 300,000 teachers and public workers jobs from unemployment. The Auto bailout saved 1 million jobs. Green Energy: Implemented renewable fuels mandate of 36 billion gallons by 2022, four times what we currently consume. Automakers will be required to meet a fleet-wide average of New Gas Mileage Standards at 35.5 MPH by 2016. A $60 billion investment in renewable and clean energy. Housing: $275 billion dollar housing plan – $75 billion dollars to prevent at-risk mortgage debtors already fallen victim to foreclosures and $200 billion to bring about confidence to offer affordable mortgages and to stability the housing market. Established “Opening Doors” to end the homelessness of 640,000 men, women, and children in the United States in 10 years. Provided $510 Million for the rehabilitation of Native American housing. Provided $2 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization Program to rehab, resell, or demolish in order to stabilize neighborhoods. Provided $5 billion for Weatherization Assistance Program for low income families to weatherize 1 million homes per year for the next decade. Provided grants to encourage states and localities to take the first steps in implementing new building codes that prioritize energy efficiency. Medicaid/Medicare/Social Security: giving $250 economic stimulus check to 55 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients in 2009. Cutting prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients by 50% and began eliminating the plan’s gap (“donut hole”) in coverage. Passing as part of H.R.3962 (Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010) a $6.4 billion measure reversing a 21 percent cut in physician payments that would have started a flood of rejections by some doctors of seniors covered by Medicare. Expanded eligibility for Medicaid to all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($14,400 per year for an individual). Military Veterans and Families: Implemented a strategic planto increase the hiring of Veterans and Military spouses throughout the Federal civil service. Provided for the expenses of families of to be at Dover AFB when fallen soldiers arrive. Passed the Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2009 increasing the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans. Declared the end of the war in Iraqi bringing back nearly 100,000 U.S. troops home to their families. Donated 250K of Nobel prize money to Fisher House, a group that helps provide housing for families of patients receiving medical care at military and Veterans Affairs medical centers. LBGT: Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights. Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation’s largest employer). Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act. Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover Gay employees taking unpaid leave to care for their children of same-sex partners. Lifted the HIV Entry Ban. Implemented HUD Policies that Would Ban Discrimination Based On Gender Identity. Well, there is more but you see we have done a lot. We have the tools to shape the message. We need to move forward together and focus on what we will accomplish forward in the coming years. That is why we have to work hard for the next three weeks to GOTV. These are my kids at the One Nation March about a week ago [adorable photo omitted for lack of technical expertise – A.T.]. They are fired up as I am. Are you? THE OFA IPHONE APP If you are . . . watch the demo, download the app, knock on some doors (it tells you which and how), hang on to Congress.
Verizon Part 2 October 13, 2010March 19, 2017 Andrew Schwarzer: “To counter your rant on Verizon: They are every year listed as the best carrier by Consumer Reports. They have the best coverage throughout the nation. They are the most knowledgeable salespeople in the business. Just because you have had a bad experience does not mean many others have. On the other hand, the complaints against AT&T and the iPhone are so pervasive as to be newsworthy. Yet, everybody loves Apple, except for those who can see the Emperor is no better, in fact less reliable, and a whole lot more expensive (have you seen their profit margins!) than the competition. Apple is an okay product with a mastery of marketing cool; they make you need their products like drug dealers make you need cocaine. The illusion Apple creates is amazing. Do you know that if you plug a non-Apple mp3 player into a computer not yours it will say, sure, hi, what do you want to download or upload. If you try that with an iPod, it will wipe all your music clean – and then you have to buy it (from Apple — those profits again), all over again. Try it. Okay, I have matched rant for rant. Do we both feel better now?” ☞ Yes! Peter Kaczowka: “I had a similar experience in Lenox MA. Verizon came and hooked up a land line in my new place, my Internet connection before I had broadband. I used it for a week, then one day I got a call from a woman. I told her she had the wrong number, she called again and assured me she was calling her home phone to check messages from her cell, and this was definitely her number. The phone had company connected her number to my phone, working on the pole right outside my place, a real mess of wires. Verizon told me it would be two months before they could give me a line. I got a cable modem, canceled my land line, now just use cell phone. A Verizon rep called back to ask about the delayed installation, I told her I had canceled it and now did not want a line. To my surprise she was happy, and thanked me for not giving them business! Turns out Verizon and other phone companies only want to sell fiber connections (FIOS), not ’POTS’ or ’Plain Old Telephone Service’ as they call it. They want to get out of that business. That’s the problem Charles is having. If he had fiber in the area he could get a land line from it, not to mention the best Internet and cable available. Those who have it swear by FIOS, but it’s not available everywhere, certainly not here in the Berkshires.” Name withheld on request: “I am a retired Verizon employee. I can think of three avenues of recourse for Charles, which are not mutually exclusive. First, there’s something called the President’s helpline. I did a quick Google and found 800-483-7988. Second, should you reach a human, the words that they absolutely hate to hear are, ‘I’ll be in touch with the New York State Public Service Commission.’ The company is rated on the number of PSC complaints and they have an impact on organizational performance measures. It is quite likely to bump up the priority of your service. The final option is to contact shareholder services. They do like to keep their shareholders happy.” ☞ I’d feel uncomfortable “cutting the line” unless it were an emergency. I just think their standard should be next-day service. Chris Brown: “I can assure you that AT&T sucks as well. Naruc.org/commissions.cfm is a nice link for you and your readers with local phone (or other state-regulated utility) issues. I used it this morning to complain about AT&T. Competence is extremely hard to come by in America these days. Maybe that’s why we’ve dropped from #1 to #7 in average wealth per adult. Of course, we are number one in obesity. But I’m sure electing Republicans who will eliminate the Department of Education will solve all of our problems. . . . Incidentally, if you ever want to start a third-party, please count me in. Here where I live, my choices for Congress are a guy who dresses up like a Nazi soldier (no problem, it’s a father-son bonding thing) or a woman who boasts “I fully support maintaining traditional Social Security and finding ways to effectively extend it without cutting benefits to our nation’s seniors.” [emphasis mine] Nobody’s perfect, but, really? I mean, really? These are the people making the important choices for our future. Yikes.” ☞ It won’t surprise you to know I’m partial to the Democrat in the race. She did her graduate work in urban planning at MIT, which shows a certain seriousness of purpose, and, while the Social Security position on her website does seem to pander a bit, as Chris notes, she actually did a pretty good job of putting the Social Security situation in context – there’s room in what she said for her to accept Bipartisan Commission recommendations to tweak Social Security in the out years. But politics sucks, for sure. Much to be said for benevolent dictators, just so long as you and I get to pick – and depose – them.
The Phones Don’t Work, But At Least The ATMs Do October 12, 2010March 19, 2017 VERIZON SUCKS I have three reasons for saying this. First, it feels good to vent. Second, if you have experienced similar frustrations, my venting may make you feel good, too. Third, if you are not yet a Verizon customer, it could be fair warning. I say this even owning VZ shares – that I am thinking of unloading, except that the company has so much room for improvement, that alone might be a reason to hang on. (I also say it recognizing that similar stories could doubtless be told about competitors; not least AT&T and its infamous dropped calls.) But this summer Verizon left hundreds (thousands?) of my fellow beach dwellers and me with no land-line service all weekend, and then all Monday (how long could it take to repair a cable that had apparently fared poorly in Point o’ Woods, several miles down the beach?), and all Tuesday (it’s not as though there had been a hurricane or anything), and all Wednesday and Thursday (what are we, Albania?) – and all Friday and Saturday and I think service was finally restored Sunday afternoon or maybe it was Monday morning, after about 10 days with no service. All of which accentuated the frustration with Verizon wireless, because when word went out they had built a cell tower atop our community center, quite a few of us bought Verizon cell phones specifically for that reason, only to see the July 4th expected “switch-on” date delayed for months – I think it’s still not on – so when the land lines went out, there was no cell back up, either. But that’s not why I write. I write because Charles’s land line in Manhattan no longer has the ability to receive calls – try him, you’ll see – though, peculiarly, he can call out just fine. And when I phoned Verizon yesterday to get it fixed, and was assigned “the earliest possible appointment,” that appointment was for a 7 days hence, so long as someone 18 or older would be home between 8am and 5pm. Which is better than having to wait two weeks and having to be available from 6am to midnight, say – but do you see my point? WHAT IF WE HAD MORE SERIOUS OUTTAGES? Wayne Seibert: “Discussing the film “Wall Street Money Never Sleeps” yesterday, you again mention how close we came to disaster, which appears to be the conventional wisdom across the entire political spectrum of economists and politicians. Many of us in the layman camp, including those that support the tea party, just don’t see it. The economy has shown solid productivity growth in the last couple of decades, which I thought was the bedrock of economic advancement. The problem has been with the allocation of that productivity dividend. Many of us see the interventions of TARP and the industrial policy initiatives of the last two years as policies designed to block that reallocation. At the time of the meltdown after Lehman Brothers’ collapse, many of the redwoods and sequoias in the economic forest were shown to have dry rot and would have caused a lot of damage if they fell. But the overall ecology of the economy was strong, and would have recovered a lot quicker and in a more healthy manner if we had allowed Citi, AIG and GM go through the established bankruptcy procedures. I agree the pain would have been sharp and severe, much like an amputation, but allowing markets to work would have punished the malfactors and let a new generation of competitors arise. Can you refer me to an article or book that can explain why I’m wrong?” ☞ Fair question. In addition to Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Too Big To Fail, there’s Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System, which I have not yet read, and doubtless lots of other things readers may point us to. But here are a couple of thoughts. First, do note that at least the shareholders of Bear Stearns, Lehman, Citibank, Washington Mutual, AIG, and GM, among others, got largely or entirely wiped out – and awful lot of shares were owned by management. So it’s not as though capitalism’s rough hand was entirely restrained, or that business continued as usual. But more to your question, imagine that Congress had not passed TARP on its second go around, and that the government had steered clear. The crisis of confidence was such that the global financial institutions that normally trust each other would have stopped trusting each other. (Would you have been comfortable wiring billions to a bank that might collapse?) Global commerce would have frozen. Exports would have stopped; just-in-time assembly lines would have been disrupted; layoffs would have been massive. The stock market would have crashed. The individuals and businesses that trust their money to banks and money market funds – and can theoretically withdraw that money with a few mouse clicks – would in a panic have pulled their money out, collapsing all but whatever few institutions the mob moved to – all crowding to one side of the boat. The ATMs would have stopped dispensing cash, loans would frantically have been called, the commercial paper market (by which the nations’ largest employers finance their day to day operations) would have frozen up, so payrolls would not have been met, so rents would not have been paid, so landlords would not have the money to pay the utility bills, so electricity would have been shut off, so martial law would have been imposed, but would that really have been enough to keep starving people from doing what they had to for food? So crime would have soared, but police would have been laid off (no tax revenues to pay them) . . . and to all this (and I was just getting warmed up) you can rightly say, “Oh, nonsense. The government would have intervened somehow.” And that’s true. But that’s the point. Government did intervene, and early enough to succeed, however imperfectly. It was expensive, but the taxpayers will get a lot of that money back. Had the Government waited longer, it might well have been impossible, or at least a lot more difficult. The best time to put out a fire is when the flames first become visible. Of course, the fire could have been averted at virtually no cost at all, simply by having had in place wise legislation and vigilant regulators with the tools they needed (and that henceforth they will a lot more nearly have) to oversee “nonbank banks” and to keep “liars’ loans” from being written and banks from speculating on 30-to-1 margin and all the rest. Indeed, just not having repealed Glass-Steagall would have gone a long away to avert the crisis. There are still worrisome systemic problems; but Dodd-Frank puts us in a better place than we were. And global commerce has not stopped and the stock market has not crashed, people trust that their bank deposits are safe, and – as awful as it is, the economy is nowhere near as bad as it was in the Depression. What we need to d now is elect people who have their eye on the big picture: the need to invest in infrastructure, education, and energy independence so we can compete and prosper in tomorrow’s vibrant world economy.
Wall Street Money Never Sleeps On Columbus Day October 11, 2010March 19, 2017 A DOCTOR, A LAWYER, AND A PRIEST I’ve known David Sipress since we were six. And what a dazzling short story he has just published – as richly textured as his New Yorker cartoons are spare. If you enjoy short fiction, set aside 15 minutes with this. It’s a holiday! “WALL STREET MONEY NEVER SLEEPS” Have you seen it yet? The scene at the New York Federal Reserve where 94-year-old Eli Wallach – as the grand old man of Wall Street – foresees the implications of failing to save the investment banks? “It’s the end of the world!” he says. This fiction jibes neatly with the real live facts, as recounted in Andrew Ross Sorkin’s page-turning Too Big To Fail, now in paperback. Most are oblivious to how close to disaster we came – not least because sounding the alarm full blast can cause disaster. (Maybe this is why they don’t shoot off cannon to warn of avalanche conditions.) GLDD, NBIX, DCTH GLDD is up 25% since discussed here last month; DCTH jumped last week on takeover rumors (which are probably bogus, opines this bull on the stock); and NBIX, first suggested here last February at $2.60, has now nearly tripled, closing up a buck at $7.34 Friday as Jefferies & Company initiated research coverage of the stock suggesting a target of $12. I am happily holding on to all three.
Mexican Bonds October 8, 2010March 19, 2017 WARREN “We’re going to have to get more [tax] money from somebody,” says Warren Buffett. “The question is, do we get more money from the person that’s going to serve me lunch today, or do we get it from me?” It’s well worth reading the whole (short) thing – and ogling the charts – over at the Motley Fool. BARNEY Can you believe that “GOProud” – the gay Republican group that celebrates Ann Coulter – hopes to unseat Congressman Barney Frank? They have endorsed his opponent, a conservative Catholic marine who opposes marriage, opposes civil unions, opposes repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. The rightwing, with virtually unlimited funds from undisclosed sources, is licking its chops at the prospect. They’re trying to pin the subprime mess and Wall Street’s meltdown on Barney – which is exactly backwards. But then this is the same team that mocked John Kerry’s purple hearts and bronze star and promised that the “vast majority” of their tax cuts would go to those at the bottom end of the economic ladder. Up is down, black is white, off is on – who cares? Whether your issue is the financial reform he championed, the appointment of Elizabeth Warren he championed, the reduction in military expenditures he champions or, yes, the LGBT equality he champions – or even if it’s just his wit and refusal to sugarcoat his message that you want to support (“on what planet do you spend most of your time?”) – would you do me a huge favor and click here to help make sure he is returned to Congress? And spread the word to your friends? MEXICAN BONDS Mexico just issued $1 billion in bonds maturing in October, 2110 – 100 years from now. They offer a tempting 6.1%. I have to laugh. Not at Mexico – I have high hopes for Mexico. At the timing. Just as the bonds were hitting the market earlier this week, I was wrapping up the new edition of my investment guide. As some of you know, it begins with the tempting yields south of the border – a whole long cautionary riff, not a word of which has changed since 1978, except that at each new revision I get to add news of the most recent peso revaluation. The peso is now worth about one-thousandth what it was at the outset of my original anecdote. So I’m proofreading and proofreading – found one place where some glitch in the typographer’s software changed a minus sign into a 2, which made 1930’s 6% deflation (“–6%”) 26% inflation – and I’m listening to cable news in the background, and I get to the last sentence of the last page of the book at almost the same moment as I hear this news about the Mexican bond issue – and that last sentence reads, as it has since 1978: “I hear, by the way, that the Mexican peso is now very strong again, and that you can get a hell of an interest rate south of the border.” Hundred-year Mexican bonds. What could go wrong?
Georgia Works, Bonds Peak October 7, 2010March 19, 2017 GEORGIA WORKS! I love this story and you will too. Georgia has found its own way to create private sector jobs for the unemployed, and it seems to be working. If you like it, send it to your governor. This needs to catch on. STOCKS AND BONDS “It’s quite clear that stocks are cheaper than bonds,” Warren Buffett told a group of Powerful Women Tuesday. “I can’t imagine anybody having bonds in their portfolio when they can own equities, a diversified group of equities. But people do because they lack confidence. But that’s what makes for the attractive prices. If they had their confidence back, they wouldn’t be selling at these prices. And believe me, it will come back over time.” If you have any bond funds in your 401(k) mix, click the link above and read the whole story. SULLIVAN – CONSERVATIVE? Carl Granados: “Re yesterday’s post, maybe Andrew Sullivan was ‘conservative’ at one time and I am sure he still likes to consider himself so, but few ‘conservatives’ these days would. I read his blog all the time, as I read yours, and he is about as conservative in most things as you and I are. Note that I consider myself and Dems in general more fiscally conservative than any in the GOP. It’s more conservative to tax and spend than to borrow and spend.” ☞ Exactly. When I describe Andrew Sullivan as a conservative, I have in mind a traditional conservative . . . which would mean going to war only as a true last resort, and financing wars (if you start them at all) by raising taxes . . . and legalizing marijuana (as William F. Buckley Jr. long advocated), and keeping the government out of your bedroom, and (let’s not forget) protecting the environment – conservation itself. Not to say there’s a perfect match between Democratic policies and traditional conservative thought. Hardly. But there’s plenty of room for true conservatives to prefer Democratic positions these days, on balance, to Republican ones . . . to prefer Obama’s seriously thoughtful leadership to that of, say, Mitch McConnell, Jim DeMint, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Michele Bachmann*, Linda McMahon**, Christine O’Donnell***, John Boehner, and Glenn Beck. *Who said. “Gay marriage is probably the biggest issue that will impact our state and our nation in the last, at least, thirty years. I am not understating that.” **Who kicked her husband in the groin on national television. ***Who would not have lied to Hitler about Jews in her attic but lied about where she went to college.
The Tide Begins To Turn October 6, 2010March 19, 2017 The economy is showing signs of revival and the electorate is showing signs of . . . reconsideration. Sure people are angry and frustrated. There’s a lot to be angry about. How could the last administration have gotten us into such a mess?! How can a single Senator hold up the entire government, and one party filibuster even its own proposals (like the bi-partisan budget deficit commission) once the President comes on board? How can they hold tax cuts for “the bottom 98%” hostage to tax cuts for the best off? Why did we go into Iraq before we had to, and without a plan to succeed? Because “Curveball” told us to??? But anger alone is not enough – and misdirecting it at the current administration is like throwing bottles at the fire department when it arrives to fight the fire someone else set. Here is conservative columnist Andrew Sullivan last week decrying that cynicism and nihilism, as he calls it. “I have no love for the Democrats,” he says, but . . . Obama’s speech to Gen44 tonight knocked my socks off. It’s streaming on CSPAN here. If you’ve forgotten why many of you worked your ass off for this guy, and felt hope for the first time in many years, watch it. He deserves criticism when necessary as this blogazine has not shied from at times. But he remains in my judgment the best option this country still has left – and it’s far too easy for the left and far too dangerous for serious conservatives and independents to abandon him now. What I particularly loved about the speech was his direct attack on the fiscal irresponsibility of the Pledge To America, the $700 billion it means we will have to borrow from China to sustain the unsustainable Bush tax cuts for those earning over $250,000 a year. And what I agreed with was his embrace of government that is lean and efficient, because these are times when the government is necessary to help reverse self-evident decline, mounting fiscal crisis, deeply dangerous enemies, and socially dangerous inequality, exploited at home by ugly demagogues and know-nothing nihilists. Here is his invocation of Lincoln’s core argument about the role of government: “I believe the government should do for the people what they cannot do better for themselves.” Then this passage where he soared like he hasn’t since the campaign: “I believe in a country that rewards hard work and responsibility, a country where we look after one other, a country that says I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, I’m going to give a hand up, join hands with folks and try to lift all of us up so we all have a better future, not just some – but all of us. That’s what I believe.” I do too. I do not believe for a second that the GOP of Palin and Boehner and Beck and DeMint represents anything but more debt, more war, more social division and more denial about the deeply serious problems this country faces and the profound dangers that are metastasizing in the world. I have no love for the Democrats but I do fervently believe that this president’s record is far better than many now fashionably claim, that his inheritance was beyond awful, and I am not giving up on this president’s immense task now, and neither, in my judgment, should any of those who voted for him in 2008. Know hope; and fight the cynicism and nihilism that is increasingly the alternative. THE OFA IPHONE APP Want to help? Download this and start knocking on doors. Don’t wait for the cavalry – you are the cavalry.
Due Diligence, Undue Influence, and 20% In a Month October 5, 2010March 19, 2017 INVERTED TEFLON Tom Anthony: “[With respect to yesterday’s Rolling Stone excerpt] Obama has accomplished a tremendous amount. But he seems to have become an Inverted-Teflon President. He gets no credit for all that he has done.” ☞ Exactly. But that perception may be changing. Summer’s over. Our nation’s future is at stake. People are beginning to focus. Everyone who’s not planning to vote Democrat should at least do his or her due diligence – for the sake of their children – and read the Rolling Stone interview. If, having done so, they conclude Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and John Boehner are the more forward-thinking, responsible leaders, then so be it. We can’t get every vote. CITIZENS UNITED John Maclay: “I’ve been reading about how outside groups, buoyed by the Citizens United decision, are flooding Republican congressional candidates with cash even as the Republican National Committee and Republican Congressional Campaign Committee are lagging behind their Democratic counterparts. What can we do to keep subpoena and appropriations power out of John Boehner’s dastardly grip?” ☞ Not sure he’s a dastard, but also not sure many Americans have fully grasped what’s happened here. With a clear minority of the popular vote (even in Florida, but that’s another column) – but a 5-4 decision of the Supreme Court – President Bush took over and moved the Court, via Roberts and Alito, further to the right. That 5-4 Bush v. Gore decision, so weak in its underpinnings that even the majority said it should not set precedent, gave us the war in Iraq, trillions in new debt, and, among other things, the Citizens United decision John refers to (which might more aptly be the “Corporations United” decision). Although it did not lift the ban on corporate contributions to candidates, it allowed nearly unlimited – and undisclosed – corporate influence over our elections. (“While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics,” Justice Stevens concluded his dissent.) That is, Exxon can now form a group called “Concerned Environmentalists For Our Children’s Future” – with no members – and secretly fund it with a billion dollars to attack pro-environment Democrats. Or the Koch brothers could fund “Joe Plumbers For Tax Fairness” with a billion dollars to try to elect Republicans who will keep the Kochs’ tax rates low. I made up those two Astroturf groups, but here are examples of real ones. If you think this is wrong – that at the very least, the funders of the ads should be disclosed so it’s clear what interests stand to gain – then that’s one more reason to discount the negative ads attacking Democrats and vote D anyway. If, on the other hand, you think this is the way things should work, then of course you should vote R. As I say, we can’t get every vote. TTT The stock is now $7.70. Chris Brown of Aristides Capital, to which I entrust a portion of my meager retirement fund, told us last week he was selling, even though it might certainly go higher. So now I’m out, with $2 worth of KHDHF on its way (one share for every four TTT shares we owned), which I plan to hold: a 20% gain in a month on a low-risk investment. Thanks, Chris.
Running The World A Facebook Game October 4, 2010March 19, 2017 BOREF I would certainly not read too much into this, except to say that it suggests the Borealis iron ore interests may not be entirely worthless. FROM THE COVER OF THE ROLLING STONE In case you didn’t read it, here’s one piece of the interview with President Obama: Q: You’ve passed more progressive legislation than any president since Lyndon Johnson. Yet your base does not seem nearly as fired up as the opposition, and you don’t seem to be getting the credit for those legislative victories. There was talk that you were going to mobilize your grass-roots volunteers and use them to pressure Congress, but you decided for whatever reason not to involve the public directly and not to force a filibuster on issues like health care. What do you say to those people who have developed a sense of frustration — your base — who feel that you need to fight harder? A: . . . When I talk to Democrats around the country, I tell them, “Guys, wake up here. We have accomplished an incredible amount in the most adverse circumstances imaginable.” I came in and had to prevent a Great Depression, restore the financial system so that it functions, and manage two wars. In the midst of all that, I ended one of those wars, at least in terms of combat operations. We passed historic health care legislation, historic financial regulatory reform and a huge number of legislative victories that people don’t even notice. We wrestled away billions of dollars of profit that were going to the banks and middlemen through the student-loan program, and now we have tens of billions of dollars that are going directly to students to help them pay for college. We expanded national service more than we ever have before. The Recovery Act alone represented the largest investment in research and development in our history, the largest investment in infrastructure since Dwight Eisenhower, the largest investment in education — and that was combined, by the way, with the kind of education reform that we hadn’t seen in this country in 30 years — and the largest investment in clean energy in our history. You look at all this, and you say, “Folks, that’s what you elected me to do.” I keep in my pocket a checklist of the promises I made during the campaign, and here I am, halfway through my first term, and we’ve probably accomplished 70 percent of the things that we said we were going to do — and by the way, I’ve got two years left to finish the rest of the list, at minimum. So I think that it is very important for Democrats to take pride in what we’ve accomplished. All that has taken place against a backdrop in which, because of the financial crisis, we’ve seen an increase in poverty, and an increase in unemployment, and people’s wages and incomes have stagnated. So it’s not surprising that a lot of folks out there don’t feel like these victories have had an impact. What is also true is our two biggest pieces of legislation, health care and financial regulatory reform, won’t take effect right away, so ordinary folks won’t see the impact of a lot of these things for another couple of years. It is very important for progressives to understand that just on the domestic side, we’ve accomplished a huge amount. When you look at what we’ve been able to do internationally — resetting our relations with Russia and potentially having a new START treaty by the end of the year, reinvigorating the Middle East peace talks, ending the combat mission in Iraq, promoting a G-20 structure that has drained away a lot of the sense of north versus south, east versus west, so that now the whole world looks to America for leadership, and changing world opinion in terms of how we operate on issues like human rights and torture around the world — all those things have had an impact as well. What is true, and this is part of what can frustrate folks, is that over the past 20 months, we made a series of decisions that were focused on governance, and sometimes there was a conflict between governance and politics. So there were some areas where we could have picked a fight with Republicans that might have gotten our base feeling good, but would have resulted in us not getting legislation done. I could have had a knock-down, drag-out fight on the public option that might have energized you and The Huffington Post, and we would not have health care legislation now. I could have taken certain positions on aspects of the financial regulatory bill, where we got 90 percent of what we set out to get, and I could have held out for that last 10 percent, and we wouldn’t have a bill. You’ve got to make a set of decisions in terms of “What are we trying to do here? Are we trying to just keep everybody ginned up for the next election, or at some point do you try to win elections because you’re actually trying to govern?” I made a decision early on in my presidency that if I had an opportunity to do things that would make a difference for years to come, I’m going to go ahead and take it. I just made the announcement about Elizabeth Warren setting up our Consumer Finance Protection Bureau out in the Rose Garden, right before you came in. Here’s an agency that has the potential to save consumers billions of dollars over the next 20 to 30 years — simple stuff like making sure that folks don’t jack up your credit cards without you knowing about it, making sure that mortgage companies don’t steer you to higher-rate mortgages because they’re getting a kickback, making sure that payday loans aren’t preying on poor people in ways that these folks don’t understand. And you know what? That’s what we say we stand for as progressives. If we can’t take pleasure and satisfaction in concretely helping middle-class families and working-class families save money, get a college education, get health care — if that’s not what we’re about, then we shouldn’t be in the business of politics. Then we’re no better than the other side, because all we’re thinking about is whether or not we’re in power. . . . FORM YOUR OWN EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE A friend has launched this new game – just today – where you run for office. You start as a candidate for dogcatcher, and if you play your cards right and get enough votes, climb the political ladder. You’re competing to become the leader of the free world, it says. Or at least the Facebook world. Let me know how you (or your kids) do and please pass on any feedback you (or they) have.