CNBC tried spinning Nouriel Roubini's statements into bullish bullshit

Watch CNBC long enough & you realize a lot of it is total bullshit. Recently, Nouriel Roubini made a statement that CNBC twisted into meaning Mr. Roubini turned bullish. It is false.

Explanation at RGE's website plus links to other blogs supporting the facts discrediting CNBC's bullshit.

Link to an email explaining how his views were taken out of context:

“I have also consistently argued that there is a risk of a double-dip W-shaped recession toward the end of 2010, as a tough policy dilemma will emerge next year: on one side, early exit from monetary and fiscal easing would tip the economy into a new recession as the recovery is anemic and deflationary pressures are dominant. On the other side, maintaining large budget deficits and continued monetization of such deficits would eventually increase long term interest rates (because of concerns about medium term fiscal sustainability and because of an increase in expected inflation) and thus would lead to a crowding out of private demand.

Why should you care?
His statements & opinions can move markets & a lot of influential people listen to him & respect him. Others know this & can believe "news" about his statements without digging beyond a single bullshit source.

Sudanese woman appears in court wearing trousers she is accused of wearing

From the Globe & Mail:

A Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public made her first appearance today in a court packed with supporters, in what her lawyer described as a test case in Sudan's decency laws.

There were chaotic scenes as Lubna Hussein, a former journalist who works for the United Nations, attended the hearing wearing the same green slacks that got her arrested for immodest dress. Indecency cases are not uncommon in Sudan. But Ms. Hussein has attracted attention by publicizing her case, inviting journalists to hearings and using it to campaign against dress codes sporadically imposed in the capital.

GovLoop.com, premier social network connecting the government community

Swiped the info from the listserv email I subscribe to from the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. Visit them online at http://www.opengovva.org:

Thousands of the nation's bureaucrats are spending their free time on Twitter, YouTube and other social networking sites trying to make government better. Really. Employees of city, state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security, have come together with the help of a new Web site called GovLoop.com to share their experiences and "best practices." The site was founded a year ago by Steve Ressler, 28, an information-technology specialist at the Department of Homeland Security. Already, more than 14,000 people have joined, creating nearly 500 subcommunities and more than 1,000 discussion forums. Brainstorming sessions online have produced ideas on everything from government transparency to interoffice communication.

GovLoop.com is the premier social network connecting the government community.
Article Megan from VCOG linked to at WashingtonTimes.com.

We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving

From NYTimes:

On Tuesday, the full body of research is being made public for the first time by two consumer advocacy groups, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents. The Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen provided a copy to The New York Times, which is publishing the documents on its Web site.

And:

The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.

Read 266 page report at NYTimes.com:

The following body of research, conducted by the Department of Transportation and completed in 2003, has not been made public until now. The documents pertain to the safety of using wireless communication devices while driving.

Get your bras ready & watch your captchas

From Pilotonline.com article:

Bras as art? The Chesapeake Regional Medical Center is staging its second annual Bra-ha-ha to raise awareness about breast cancer.

Get your entry form filled out:



Captcha at Wikipedia which should help explain why the one pictured is funny at some teenage level.

This American Life covers health insurance horror stories

From The Baseline Scenario:

The This American Life crew, once again proving that they can cover any topic they want better than anyone else in the media,* has a segment in this weekend’s episode on rescission of health insurance policies – insurers’ established practice of looking for ways to invalidate policies once it turns out that the insured actually needs significant medical care. (The segment is around the 30-minute mark; audio should be available on that page sometime on Monday.) The story describes a couple of particularly egregious cases, such as a woman who was denied breast cancer surgery because she had been treated for acne in the past, and a person whose policy was rescinded because his insurance agent had incorrectly entered his weight on the application form.

Interesting discussion about Economics as a recognized "theory"

From Linda Beale's guess post at NakedCapitalism.com:

What does the lead-in admit to, then (if it still thinks economic and free market theory are worth defending)? It acknowledgs that the discipline is subject to three critiques:

1) it helped cause the current economic crisis
2) It failed to see it coming
3) It doesn't know how to fix it.

FINRA warns brokerages not to push leveraged ETFs on retail customers

From Investment News:

...the company decided to prohibit the sale of leveraged ETFs that seek more than two times the long or short performance of the target index, said spokesman Joseph Kuo.

Don't know what a leveraged ETF is but would still "invest" in them? I have an idea for an investment fund that simply "invests" in lottery tickets. When you "retire", you find out how much $$$ you have.

Fed chairman didn't want to preside over the 2nd Great Depression

From Bloomberg:

“In a financial crisis, if you let the big firms collapse in a disorderly way, it will bring down the whole system,” Bernanke said yesterday at a town-hall-style meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, taped for broadcast this week on PBS television. “I was not going to be the Federal Reserve chairman who presided over the second Great Depression.”

There are those who think everything is fixed now. Yeah, right.

I guess an alternative way to look at it is, invest like you did in the past or go to Atlantic City or Vegas with your retirement/savings dough.

Then again, you could believe it'll take more than a few months to come back from the brink of total global financial collapse.

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.