S M I L E

Sniffle, sniffle.

Dug up YouTube video after watching story here.

Speculating in CDS is a good thing

Hahahahaha. Ahem. From Bloomberg:

The legislation Frank plans to release next week might disrupt the flow of capital to companies by making it costlier for investors to hedge their stakes, said Robert Pickel, chief executive officer of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a New York-based industry group that sets rules and guidelines for the market.

‘Liquidity and Depth’

“Having people who are in there speculating adds liquidity and depth to the market so that anybody who is a pure hedger, they can tap that market and know they have a deep and liquid market to turn to,” Pickel said in an interview yesterday.

Costlier for investors to hedge their stakes! Costlier? Does this moron mean costlier than the worlds financial system melting down?

You know, like a deep and liquid market back stopped by you & me the tax payers. Anyone remember Bear Sterns, Lehman Bros, AIG, Merril Lynch, yes they too were history without their private bailout, et al.

CDS at wikipedia.

In case you aren't aware of the problems CDS has caused, one example is how AIG wrote many, many, many of them. Basically without collateral backing them up, collecting premiums and "insuring" far more than they could ever dream of covering.

Sort of like you collecting premiums on insuring New Orleans in the event of a disaster without any way to pay the bill. Some believe this is fraud plan and simple.

President's Press Conference from July 22

This debate is not a game.

Whitehouse blog.

Ignore Everybody & 39 other keys to creativity

Reading the book from Gapingvoid.com.
Recommend getting or at least reading his story at his blog.
His back of business card cartoons are addictive.

Public Surplus auction site

From Public Surplus, a web based auction site for institutions to sell stuff & you to buy it. From their History page:

Intrigued, we decided to do some research in Utah, as well as other States. It would be important to asses the level of need other public agencies may have for a complete surplus inventory management system. Ninety-four agencies, (cities, counties, school districts and colleges), were contacted during this research. It was determined that none of these agencies were in full compliance with their State's regulations or policies. Problems were found relating to record keeping, reallocation and/or collusion avoidance. Moreover, the processes for managing surplus inventory operations were generally disorganized.

Simplenote for your iPhone

Simplenote rocks. More than worth the $1.99!

Crushes Apple's included Notepad, syncs over WiFi to their website. Just works. Beautiful.

Found the app thanks to DaringFireBall.net.

7 reasons why housing isn't bottoming yet & how it could affect you

From Ritholtz:

There are more reasons I expect the Real Estate market to remain punk for many years, but these are a good place to start when considering the question.

The Housing Boom & Bust, and the 2002-07 credit bubble created massive excesses. More than anything, it is going to take time to resolve them.

He details his ideas on Prices, Mean Reversion, Employment & Wages, Foreclosures, Inventory of which there is a substantial part of Shadow Inventory, Psychology, Debt Service/Down Payment & finally Deleveraging.

While planning on saving, investing, purchasing large items & evaluating risk vs. reward, it is clear the previous 20-40 years could be dangerous to extrapolate forward. His list is simply another example of the incredible challenges & opportunities that have been created recently. Extreme due diligence & caution will sooner or later rule the day.

Big money in gas

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Bernanke's op ed on how the Fed will not repeat history for the first time

From the Wall Street Journal:

My colleagues and I believe that accommodative policies will likely be warranted for an extended period. At some point, however, as economic recovery takes hold, we will need to tighten monetary policy to prevent the emergence of an inflation problem down the road. The Federal Open Market Committee, which is responsible for setting U.S. monetary policy, has devoted considerable time to issues relating to an exit strategy. We are confident we have the necessary tools to withdraw policy accommodation, when that becomes appropriate, in a smooth and timely manner.

Good luck with that red part.

Apollo 11 landing on TV as it aired 40 years ago

Super awesome cool from kottke:

...I've built a page where you can watch the CBS News coverage of Walter Cronkite reporting on the Moon landing and the first moon walk, 40 years to the second after it originally happened.

His post explaining it including "live schedule".

Crablike spiny orb weaver

4 pics in Flickr set.

Showed up yesterday with a huge web from one of our live oaks, to a statue, to our garden table.

Luckily the web had "little tufts of silk" so it was easier to see. I gently moved the web out of the path we had to work in. Link at Wikipedia. Unfortunately she was gone today.

Cycle for bike lanes on Shore Drive & Laskin Road Sunday July 26th

This coming Sunday July 26th be at Kokoamos by 8am to ride Tour de Virginia Beach.

More info at ShareShoreDriveDay.net.

Photobucket Share Shore Drive Group

Share Shore Drive Day ?

Find out what it's all about here.

The power of comedy & FOIA

Hat tip to VCOG about NYTimes article:

Through his spokeswoman, Mr. Colbert cheekily responded on Wednesday to questions about his e-mail message to the governor. “I have a comment, but I am sending it to Mark Sanford’s office, so you can get it through the Freedom of Information Act,” he said.

About the Virginia Coalition for Open Government:

We are a nonprofit alliance formed to promote expanded access to government records, meetings and other proceedings at the state and local level. Our efforts are focused solely on local/state information access. While we do some lobbying (within limits imposed by IRS rules), our primary work is educational.

Restructuring debt to equity, FT article by Taleb

More pressure to balance risk vs. reward while investing.

Taleb's latest article FT.com:

The core of the problem, the unavoidable truth, is that our economic system is laden with debt, about triple the amount relative to gross domestic product that we had in the 1980s. This does not sit well with globalisation. Our view is that government policies worldwide are causing more instability rather than curing the trouble in the system. The only solution is the immediate, forcible and systematic conversion of debt to equity. There is no other option.

Financial Times is free to join & it's worth it to view a entire articles that are sometimes blocked with membership.

Check out Soundcloud for uploading, sharing & listening to new tunes

From Music Business & Trend Mongering I saw Soundcloud:

lets you move music fast & easy. The platform takes the daily hassle out of receiving, sending & distributing music for artists, record labels & other music professionals.

More:

We love audio. And we don't discriminate against big files in strange formats, we welcome anything and everything audio. We've made it damn fast to upload and choose who you're sending to, no matter if they're on SoundCloud or not.

Share Shore Drive Day

Been working on Share Shore Drive Day.

Eat Doritos & rock out

Buy Doritos.
Go to DoritosLateNight.com.
Select Blink 182 or Big Boi.
Allow the site to "use" your camera and mic.

What the hell am I talking about?
Check it out at Gizmodo, Smartbrief, & Marketplace.
Woooooooo.

CEO of Lehman Brothers talks about buying time

From Calculated Risk

That is the phases we are in right now. Everyone is trying to buy time, as opposed to dealing with the leverage, they are trying to buy time. Whether you are a banker or a company, they are all trying to buy time. I don't see the leverage coming back, and I don't see the consumption of good and services coming back.
Bryan Marsal, CEO of Lehman Brothers Holdings.

He's the CEO hired on to wind down the company.

What happens when the 8th largest economy in the world is insolvent

And Friday, their IOU's:

A group of the biggest U.S. banks said they would stop accepting California's IOUs on Friday, adding pressure on the state to close its $26.3 billion annual budget gap.

From The Wall Street Journal.

Wonder if their problems & budget problems in other states will have a negative or positive effect.