Bits & Pieces (Monday Night Open Mic)

I been gone all day, and will be similarly disposed Tuesday and Wednesday. PowerSchool SQL training at work, new puppy and busted TV at home, I’m busy.

So, this is what I’m doing right now:

select st.lastfirst,st.grade_level gl,sc.abbreviation, 

sch2.abbreviation as abbr2,st.entrydate,st.exitdate,st.enroll_status, 

sch2.dfltnextschool, sch3.name,re.entrydate “PrevEntDate”, 

re.grade_level PrevGL,re.schoolid PrevSchoolID

from students st 

join schools scon st.schoolid = sc.school_numberjoin reenrollments re 

on st.schoolid != re.schoolidand st.id = re.studentidjoin schools sch2

on re.schoolid=sch2.school_numberjoin schools sch3

on sch3.school_number = sch2.dfltnextschoolwhere st.schoolid=25and st.enroll_status = 0

and re.exitdate = to_date(’06/04/2011′,’mm/dd/yyyy’)

and (sch2.dfltnextschool != st.schoolid)

and st.schoolid != st.next_schoolorder BY lastfirst

But I’m more interested in figuring out what the custom fields are inside custom CLOBs, but no love so far. See you later!

***

A former employee dishes on working for Keith Olberman. Blocked by my net nanny, but I’m going to have to read that later. 😉

– KW

Whither the Tea Party

One of the genuine curiosities of the current race for the Republican nomination is
the absence of The Tea Party as a real player. Given that the energy and enthusiasm
in the Republican party appears to reside within The Tea Party it’s worth wondering why
that element of the party appears content, or resigned, to see Romney or Santorum take the
nomination. Neither candidate could fairly be seen to be suited to carry the banner
of limited government.

One possibility seems to be that the Tea Party simply does not have, for now at least,
the kind of organization needed to bring a candidate to the fore. A successful run for the Republican nomination requires organization and funding. That Romney has been able to acquire that organization and funding without significant Tea Party backing, and given that the Tea Party has not brought a viable competitor forward, it may simply be
the case that the Tea Party does not now possess the resources needed to do so.

Another possibility is that the Tea Party has the resources, or could have acquired them in a timely manner, but has elected not to do so. If that is the case, then it seems reasonable to
assume that the Tea Party isn’t well suited to uniting to support a certain candidate, at least in the nomination process. It may be that the Tea Party is more a loose collection of individuals that a group suited to hammering out differences in order to settle on a particular candidate.

Another possibility is that the Tea Party is not, generally speaking, as opposed to government
as its rhetoric would suggest. With the congress, particularly the House, effectively refusing everything, one would expect House Republicans in particular, to be more popular with the Tea Party base of the Republican Party. Polling does not appear to indicate that that is the case. That is to say that, given the rhetoric, one would expect to see intransigent
Republican House members and the House leadership, buoyed by the praises of the base of
the party. That does not seem to have happened. And given all the talk of
smaller government and reducing taxes, one would expect the Tea Party to find, and back
to the hilt, a Republican nominee fiercely determined to do so. That is not the case either.
Furthermore, the Tea Party, taken as a whole, seems reluctant about, if not openly hostile, toward, cuts in medicare and social security, and, perhaps, to a lesser degree defense. With that being the case, it is difficult not to suspect that the Tea Party is principally comprised of older Americans interested in cutting government programs for others and safeguarding the ones that benefit them.

There are other possibilities and more than one, or none, may be correct. Of the three mentioned above, however, the third possibility seems to be bolstered, in part, by the fact that it would place the Tea Party in line with general attitudes. Americans, particularly elderly Americans, have demonstrated little real zeal for reducing the size of government and perhaps the Tea Party, for all its rhetoric, has not broken free of that.

Morning Report

Vital Statistics:

Last Change Percent
S&P Futures 1275.1 0.9 0.07%
Eurostoxx Index 2304.9 6.280 0.27%
Oil (WTI) 101.43 -0.130 -0.13%
LIBOR 0.5805 -0.001 -0.17%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 81.1 -0.160 -0.20%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 1.98% 0.02%

Markets are flattish this morning on a lack of news. No major news out of Europe. Unicredito is the first Euro bank to start raising additional capital. The stock is down 12% on its rights issue.
Robert Samuelson has a column on the state of China’s real estate bubble. I don’t think people in the US fully grasp the size of that bubble. China has entire cities built on spec – in other words, they are completely built and vacant. Here are some satellite images. Apartments in Beijing are 27 times income. Chinese savers have few investment options, so real estate tends to absorb the majority of the excess capital. This could get ugly over the next few years. While the western banks don’t have a lot of direct exposure to Chinese banks, they do have exposure to HSBC and Standard Chartered. For those wanting a stronger Chinese currency, forget about it.
Earnings season kicks off tonight with Alcoa reporting after the close.