All Things in Moderation

The class divisions of Occupy Wall Street:

Filed under: Uncategorized | 18 Comments »

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Here’s an alternative view on the GPS tracking debate.

“The intense debate the case has already elicited among legal scholars, civil rights and libertarian activists, and those particularly concerned with public safety and national security is largely focused on the question: what would the Founding Fathers have said about the case? As I see it, at least equal weight should be accorded to the question: How well are our public authorities doing in their dealings with criminals? Who needs more tools and who should be denied access to cyber-age technologies if we are to keep a balance between our profound and essential commitments to privacy as well as our security?”

The full editorial is on CNN.

As I have nothing nice to say, I’ll remain silent.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

What’s money really worth? The dollar value of the metal in coinage. 

Yes, McWing, I picked this up from Ace of Spades. How much does it cost to print a dollar bill, and how much of what is in circulation? There’s a lot in circulation, and in 2011 it costs about 9.1 cents per note.

IN 1974, K-Tel released a compilation album (both on vinyl and 8-Track) called Dynamic Sound. I’ve got a Spotify list that reconstructs that album’s playlist, but not the fade and ka-chunk of the 8-Track switching tracks (there is an iPod/iPhone app that I believe does this). You have to have Spotify to listen to it, however. I don’t pay for the mobile and other features, but the free account is teh awesome.

Why did I do that? Because K-Tel’s Dynamic Sound has never been available, since original release, yet I listened to that eight track a hundred times between ages 5 and 10. It, along with the soundtracks to the broadway musicals Hair and Jesus Christ: Superstar, were as formative as any of my other music. And my sister listened to it a lot, and I thought it might make a nice Christmas gift to put it altogether for her. It’s interesting to listen to something you heard a hundred times as a kid, but includes songs that I literally have not heard since 1978 or so.

If you’ve got Spotify, I also recommend Planet P’s 1931. It’s a concept album dealing with the rise of Hitler. And Tony Carey is an awesome song-writer.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 14 Comments »

Capato v. Commissioner was decided in favor of the twins in the Third Circuit and the Supremes have granted Certiorari.

This is again a case where science may be outrunning the law as written.  Here is what happened:  Mr. Capato was dying of cancer.  He and the Mrs. preserved his seed for later use.  He died.  She then conceived, 18 months after his death, by IVF, twins;  his biological children, no doubt.

On behalf of the twins, Mrs. C. filed for SS survivors’ bennies.
The claim was administratively rejected, then rejected by a USDC.
The 3d Circuit reversed and remanded for a fact finding.

This is a statutory, not a constitutional, case.   I believe the Supremes can reverse and render the Circuit, from my reading of the statute, and I am dubious as to the relevancy of the case law the Circuit cited.

The relevant part of the statute as quoted by the Circuit:

…the child (a) must have filed an application for benefits, (b) must be unmarried and less than eighteen years old (or an elementary or secondary school student under nineteen), and (c) must have been dependent upon the deceased individual at the time of his or her death. Id. §§ 402(d)(1)(A)-(C). [at p. 6].
************************************
The Circuit remanded to the District Court for a fact finding about dependency:

…are the undisputed biological children of a deceased wage earner and his widow children, within the meaning of the Act? The answer is a resounding ―Yes.‖ Accordingly, we will vacate the order of the District Court in part and remand for a determination of whether, as of the date of Mr. Capato‘s death, his children were dependent or deemed dependent on him, the final requisite of the Act remaining to be satisfied.6
********************************************

HOW can a fact finder deem the children conceived 18 mos. after his death to be dependent upon him at the time of his death, when they did not exist in any sense of the word?  Seems to me these twins are cut off as a matter of law.

This Court did seem to claim that these children were protected under a “liberal construction” of the law, and here that is not a political statement but a reference to a statute that is supposed to be interpreted liberally in favor of the beneficiary, in its own terms.  I quote:

The purpose of federal child insurance benefits is not to provide general welfare benefits, but to replace the support that the child would have received from his father had the father not died.  Jones ex rel. Jones v. Chater, 101 F.3d 509, 514 (7th Cir. 1996) (citing Mathews v. Lucas, 427 U.S. 495, 507-08 (1976)); see also Adams v. Weinberger, 521 F.2d 656, 659 (2d Cir. 1975) (the purpose of the Act is to provide support to children who have lost actual‖or anticipated‖ support). In general, the [Act] is to be accorded a liberal application in consonance with its remedial and humanitarian aims. Eisenhauer v. Mathews, 535 F.2d 681, 686 (2d Cir. 1976).
********************************************
To me, either they are protected under this liberal interpretation of the law as a matter of law, or they are not, as a matter of law.  I think they are not, but most important from my view is I do not think that there could be any relevant facts that bear on the decision.  It must be a matter of law, IMHO.

Ashot?  QB?  Any thoughts?  If the Supremes took this one, they must have something to say.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 144 Comments »

Science is awesome. And our brains are complicated. And it’s amazing that we can think with this thing.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Vital Statistics:

Euro sovereign yields are stable this morning, with Italy a little tighter and Spain a little wider. Oil is rallying on news that ConocoPhillips will reverse a pipeline which will move oil from the Central US to the Gulf Coast. There has been a glut of West Texas Intermediate in the central US, which has caused US oil (West Texas Intermediate) to trade at a substantial discount to International oil (North Sea Brent). At the moment, WTI is trading at 101.90 a barrel, up 2.50 vs Brent at 112.36 up 20 cents. Libya has also accounted for some of the premium as well, but the biggest driver is the absolute glut of oil in the central US.

In economic data we had the Consumer Price Index, Industrial Production, Capacity Utilization, and the NAHB Housing Market Index. All of these indices were net positives for the market, with the CPI indicating inflation remains under control, and industrial production, capacity utilization, and the NAHB index higher than expected. While these indices are still at soft levels, there is improvement, and the show that a double dip is not in the cards. While Europe is still the wild card, people are so pessimistic that the “black swan” may in fact be a garden-variety recession and not a financial catastrophe. Food for thought.

Bloomberg has a story about how there may end up being 200,000 job losses in the financial industry this year. It shows how utterly clueless the Occupy Wall Street people are. They imagine everybody is getting six and seven figure bonuses. Instead they are getting pink slips.
Business is terrible and people aren’t getting paid. The one thing OWS does not understand about the Street is that you eat what you kill. If you don’t generate revenue, you aren’t getting paid, no matter what fraternity you went to, who your parents are, etc. The fantasy that connected people are sitting on their duffs and making multimillion dollar bonuses is just that – a fantasy. Most senior people I know who lost jobs in 07-08 are still unemployed, even if they had nothing to do with subprime loans.

Chart: Capacity Utilization.

This chart gives a picture of how much slack there is in the manufacturing economy. Levels are back to the mid level of the 02-08 expansion, though less than the 90s. It certainly indicates that inflation will not be a problem, and that capital expenditures will be on hold for a while. Still, the trend is positive.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 28 Comments »

Filed under: Uncategorized | 15 Comments »

The Chicago Climate Exchange is closing. Founded in 2000 in order to provide an exchange for carbon credits, a market they expected to exist, and amenable to becoming a hyper-inflated asset bubble, due to legislation that (sad to say) never came to be.

“Environmentalist” financiers will just have to find some other way to get filthy rich and leave the American tax payer holding the bag, after the bubble bursts.

Glenn Beck thinks Rick Santorum is the next George Washington. I feel about that assertion the way Lloyd Bentsen felt about Dan Quayle bringing up JFK in the debates. Mr. Beck, Rick Santorum is no George Washington.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 56 Comments »

Vital Statistics:

Markets are weaker this morning as Spanish bond yields rose at an auction. The 10-year Spanish bond yield rose 21 basis points to 6.32%. The Italian government bond yield rose to 7.03%. EURIBOR / OIS is about 1.5 basis points higher at 90.9 bps. The UK and Germany are clashing over a proposed financial transaction tax, with the UK refusing to go along with a Euro Financial Transactions tax unless the US and Asian markets institute one. The City of London is in fact the financial center of Europe and the UK estimates that they would end up paying roughly 80% of the tax. British Prime Minister David Cameron cheekily suggested that requiring the UK to institute a financial transactions tax would be like asking the French to institute a cheese tax.

There was a slew of encouraging economic data this morning. The Producer Price Index came in lower than expected, indicating inflationary pressures (at least as measured by the government) remain under control. Retail sales came in better than expected, though the .6% increase is a modest number. I have pointed out that there has been a disconnect lately between the sentiment indicators and the actual spending numbers. Finally Empire Manufacturing came in better than expected as well.

The Wall Street Journal has a story on the state of finances at FHA. The FHA’s reserves have dropped to $2.6 billion which is .24% of the $1.1 trillion of loans it insures. The FHA is actually required to hold 2% reserves. This raises the possibility that FHA will run out of money and need more money from the government. The recent audit of FHA estimates they will squeak by, assuming real estate prices drop 5.6% this year and rise 1.2% in 2012. Fortunately for FHA, they can go directly to Treasury and can bypass Congress.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 98 Comments »